IMPRESSIONS  OF 
THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT  AT  WORK 

From  a  photograph  taken  in  1912  at  his  desk  in  the  office 

of  the  Outlook 


« Impressions 

of 

Theodore  'Roosevelt 

By 
Jhftorence  F.  ^Abbott 


garden  £^y       ^ew  York 

<Doubleday,  T'age  &  Company 

'9*9 


• 


'<, 


COPYRIGHT,  1919,  BT 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED,  INCLUDING  THAT  OF 

TRANSLATION  INTO  FOREIGN  LANGUAGES, 

INCLUDING  THE  SCANDINAVIAN 


TO 
MY  FATHER 

WHOM  THE  MORAL  LAW  COMMANDS  ME  TO 
LOVE  BUT  WHOM  OF  MY  OWN  VOLITION 
I  LIKE  AS  THE  MOST  DELIGHTFUL  AND 
DESIRABLE  OF  FRIENDS  AND  COMPANIONS 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  makes  no  pretense  of  being  a  biogra 
phy  of  Theodore  Roosevelt.  Nor  will  the  reader 
find  in  it  a  chronological  narrative  of  the  events 
of  his  career.  Those  who  wish  to  know  these 
chronological  facts  are  referred  to  his  own  Auto 
biography;  to  the  forthcoming  "Life  and  Letters" 
by  Mr.  Joseph  Bucklin  Bishop,  who  was  named  by 
Mr.  Roosevelt  as  its  authorized  editor;  to  the  in 
troduction,  notes,  and  appendices  which  I  furnished 
for  his  volume  of  "African  and  European  Address"; 
and  to  the  article  on  Theodore  Roosevelt  which  I 
contributed  to  The  Eleventh  Edition  of  the  Ency 
clopaedia  Britannica. 

The  purpose  of  the  present  volume  is  to  record 
some  personal  impressions  which  this  great  Amer 
ican  made  upon  me  in  the  course  of  an  acquain 
tanceship  of  twenty-two  years,  during  the  latter 
half  of  which  our  relations  were  those  of  intimate 
association  and  friendship.  It  is  with  the  hope  of 
supplying  some  useful  details  for  the  final  portrait 
which  will  be  painted  by  the  historians  of  the  future 
that  this  simple,  informal,  and  free-hand  sketch  is 
undertaken. 

LAWRENCE  F.  ABBOTT. 
The  Outlook  Office, 

New  York, 
July  30,  1919. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTE* 


I.     ACQUAINTANCESHIP 3 

How  I  Came  to  Know  Theodore  Roose 
velt 

The  Police  and  Good  Government 
His  Connection  with  the  Outlook 
A  Cabinet  Meeting 
Roosevelt  as  a  Journalist 
A  "Standard  Oil"  Incident 

II.     POLITICS 33 

An  Hereditary  Republican 
Joe  Murray's  Story 
Roosevelt's  Relation  to  the  Bosses 
The  Nomination  of  Elaine 

III.    THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY 52 

"I  Am  Going  Down  Like  Dewey" 
The  Return  to  Politics 
Why  Mr.  Taft  Was  Nominated  in  1908 
The  Break  with  Taft 
The  Sudden  Formation  of  the  Progres 
sive  Party 

Roosevelt's  Nomination 
"The  Irish  and  the  Dutch" 

IV.    STATESMANSHIP 92 

The  Need  of  Political  Machinery 
An  Estimate  of  Senator  Lodge 

ix 


CONTENTS 

IAFTER  PAGE 

A  Joyous  President  and  Ex-President 

Senatorial  Conflicts 
I    ^Nationalism 

The  Battle  Fleet's  Visit  to  Japan 

Political  and  Industrial  Reform 

Conservation 
*-  *-"Colonial  Policy 
7    *-~^F he  Russo-Japanese  Peace 
*   '-The  Panama  Canal 

V.    FOREIGN  AFFAIRS    .     .     .     .  .„  ,     .     .     142 
^  *^*Remission  of  the  Chinese  Indemnity 
The  Origin  of  the  Guildhall  Speech 
"Govern-or-go"  Roosevelt 
The  Sorbonne  Speech  and  Its  Effect  on 

France 
How  Roosevelt  Helped  to  Save  Egypt 

VL    A  MAN  OF  LETTERS     ...     .     .     .     169 

.     The  Volume  and  Variety  of  Roosevelt's 

Writings 

The  Pigskin  Library 
Hero  Tales  of  American  History 
An  Arizona  Snake  Dance 
An  Essay  on  Progressivism 
An  Estimate  of  Tolstoy 

VII.    THE  AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR      .     200 
Roosevelt's  Desire  to  Get  out  of  the 

Limelight 

An  Experience  in  "Tipping" 
The  Controversy  with  the  Vatican 
What  Fogazzaro  Thought  About  It 


CONTENTS  xi 

PAG  a 

The  Democratic  King  of  Italy 
How  Roosevelt  Met  the  Kaiser 
Afternoon  Tea  with  the  King  of  Norway 
Sir  Percy  Girouard's  Estimate  of  Roose 
velt 

ROOSEVELT'S  PERSONAL  QUALITIES  .     .     264 
His  Caution 
His  Courage 
His  Sense  of  Humour 
His  Gentleness 

IX.    THE  END 312 

The  Simple  Funeral 
The  Hillside  Grave 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Theodore  Roosevelt  at  Work Frontispiece 

PAGE 

As  President  of  the  Board  of  Police,  New  York  City, 

I895--97 6 

In  cowboy  costume  during  his  early  years  as  a  ranchman  14 
In  1885,  in  North  Dakota,  four  years  after  Joe  Murray 

started  Mr.  Roosevelt's  political  career     ....  30 

As  a  member  of  the  New  York  Assembly      ....  38 

As  Civil  Service  Commissioner,  1889-1895  ....  38 
With  a  party  of  Republicans  who  came  to  tell  him  that 

he  was  their  nominee  for  President 7O 

The  Inaugural  Address  of  1904 70 

Addressing  a  street  audience  with  characteristic  gesture 

and  emphasis 78 

A  rear  platform  speech  to  a  group  of  citizens  in  Ohio     .  94 

In  his  English  Academic  robes 102 

This  is  believed  to  have  been  Colonel  Roosevelt's  favour 
ite  photograph  of  himself 102 

Reviewing  the  Battle  Fleet  at  the  time  of  its  world 

cruise i HO 

Theodore  Roosevelt  as  President 118 

The  last  meeting  of  the  Roosevelt  Cabinet  118 

With  members  of  the  Conservation  Commission     .      .  126 

Peace  Envoys  on  board  Mayflower,  August,  1905    .      .  134 

At  Panama  inspecting  the  Canal  which  "he  took"       .  134 

Crossing  a  part  of  the  desert  near  Khartum  .     .     .  150 

riii 


xiv  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Reviewing  native  Nubian  and  African  troops  of  the 

British  Army  of  the  Sudan  at  Khartum     ....  150 

As  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  Rough  Riders  ....  198 

With  the  Rough  Riders 198 

In  Africa  photographing  a  jackal  eating  his  fill  inside 

the  carcass  of  an  elephant 206 

With  the  author,  viewing  the  Roman  Forum  from  a 

point  on  the  Palatine  Hill  .     ....      .      .     .  222 

Arriving  with  his  party  in  England  from  Germany,  in 

1910 254 

With  a  group  of  distinguished  citizens  reviewing  a 

parade  .      .     .  .   .     .     .     .     .     .     .     ...     .  270 

In  the  Yosemite  Valley  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  278 

A  hunting  trip  in  Colorado 278 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  with  their  children  .  .  .  286 

The  Roosevelt  Home  at  Sagamore  Hill  on  Long  Island.  302 
The  last  photograph  of  Colonel  Roosevelt  .  .  .  .310 

The  Hillside  burial  .  .  .  .  .  ....  .  310 


ROOSEVELT'S  CHIEF  WRITINGS,  EXCLUDING 
NEWSPAPER  ARTICLES  AND  STATE  PAPERS 

"African   and   European   Addresses."     New  York:   G.    P. 

Putnam's  Sons,  1910.  \ 
"African  Game  Trails."     New  York:  C.  Scribner's  Sons, 

1910. 
"America  and  the  World  War."     New  York:  C.  Scribner's 

Sons,  1915. 
"American  Ideals  and  Other  Essays  Social  and  Political." 

New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1904. 
"A  Book-lover's  Holidays  in  the  Open."   NewTork:  C.  Scrib 
ner's -Sons,  1916. 
"Fear  God  and  Take  Your  Own  Part."    New  York:  G.  H. 

Doran  Company,  1916. 
"The  Foes  of  Our  Own  Household."     New  York:  G.  H. 

Doran  Company  [cop.  1917]. 
"Good  Hunting  in  Pursuit  of  Big  Game  in  the  West."    New 

York:  Harper  and  Brothers,  1907. 
"Gouverneur    Morris."     Boston:    Houghton,    Mifflin    and 

Company,     [ist  pub.  1888.]     (American  statesmen.) 
"The   Great   Adventure;  Present-day  Studies  in  American 

Nationalism.     New  York:  C.  Scribner's  Sons,  1918. 
"History  as  Literature,  and  Other  Essays."      New  York: 

C.  Scribner's  Sons,  1913. 
"Hunting  Trips  of  a  Ranchman:  Sketches  of  Sport  on  the 

Northern  Cattle  Plains."     New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's 

Sons,  1885.     [Also  other  editions.] 
"Life  of  Thomas  Hart  Benton."     Boston:  Houghton,  Mifflin 

and  Company,  1887.     (American  statesmen.) 

XV 


xvi  ROOSEVELT'S  CHIEF  WRITINGS 

"National  Strength  and  International  Duty."  Princeton: 
Princeton  University  Press,  1917  (Stafford  Little  lectures 
for  1917.) 

"Naval  War  of  1812;  or,  The  History  of  the  United  States 
Navy  During  the  Last  War  with  Great  Britain."  New 
York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1882.  8th  edition. 

"New  York."  New  York:  Longmans,  Green  and  Company, 
1903.  (Historic  towns.) 

"Oliver  Cromwell."     New  York:  C.  Scribner's  Sons,  1900. 

"Ranch  Life  and  the  Hunting-trail."  New  York:  Century 
Company,  1896. 

"The  Rough  Riders."     New  York:  C.  Scribner's  Sons,  1899. 

"The  Strenuous  Life:  Essays  and  Addresses."  New  York: 
Century  Company,  1900. 

"Theodore  Roosevelt;  an  Autobiography."  New  York: 
Macmillan  Company,  1913. 

"Through  the  Brazilian  Wilderness."  New  York:  C.  Scrib 
ner's  Sons,  1914. 

"The  Wilderness  Hunter."  An  account  of  the  big  game  of 
the  United  States  and  its  chase  with  horse,  hound,  and 
rifle.  New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1893. 

"The  Winning  of  the  West."  4  volumes.  New  York:  G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons,  1889-96.  Various  editions;  Standard 
library  edition,  4  volumes  each;  Sagamore  edition,  6 
volumes  each. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  and  Heller,  Edmund. 

"Life  Histories  of  African  Game  Animals."     New  York: 
C.  Scribner's  Sons,  1914.     2  volumes. 


ROOSEVELT  CHRONOLOGY  ' 

Born  in  New  York  City,  October  27,  1858 

Graduated  from  Harvard,  1880 

Elected  to  New  York  Legislature,  1881,  1882,  1883 

Republican  candidate  for  Mayor  of  New  York,  1886 

Civil  Service  Commissioner,  1889 

Police  Commissioner,  1895 

Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  1897 

Lieutenant-Colonel  and  Colonel,  Rough  Riders,  1898 

Governor  of  New  York,  1899-1900 

Elected  Vice-President,  November  4,  1900 

Became  President  on  death  of  President  McKinley,  Septem 
ber  14,  1301^ 

Elected  President  of  the  United  States,  1904 

Became  associated  with  the  Outlook  in  spring  of  1909 

Sailed  for  Africa  in  March,  1909 

Organized  Progressive  Party  and  was  Progressive  Party 
Candidate  for  President,  1912 

Shot  at  Milwaukee,  in  October,  191 2 

Visited  South  America,  October,  i'913-June,  1914 

Resigned  from  the  Outlook  in  1914,  and  later  became  special 
contributor  to  the  Metropolitan  Magazine  and  the 
Kansas  City  Star 

In  the  autumn  of  1918  he  had  a  recurrence  of  the  jungle 
fever  which  he  contracted  in  South  America 

Died  at  Sagamore  Hill,  January  6,  1919 

Buried  at  Oyster  Bay,  January  8,  1919. 


xvii 


IMPRESSIONS  OF 
THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 


IMPRESSIONS 

OF 
THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

CHAPTER  I 
ACQUAINTANCESHIP 

I  FORMED  the  Roosevelt  habit  early.  In  the 
autumn  of  1881  Theodore  Roosevelt  was 
elected  as  a  Republican  to  the  Legislature  of  the 
State  of  New  York.  The  story  of  that  election  is 
a  characteristic  and  amusing  one  and  will  be  re 
ferred  to  in  more  detail  in  the  next  chapter.  On 
taking  his  seat  in  the  lower  house,  or  Assembly, 
of  the  Legislature  he  became  at  once  a  prominent 
if  not  a  national  figure.  He  was  reflected*  ifi  1882 
and  1883  and  was  selected  by  his  party  in  the 
Legislature  as  its  candidate  for  Speaker.  All"  this, 
happened  when  he  was  less  than  twenty-four  years 
old.  Naturally  his  success — based  as  it  was  on 
high  standards  and  enduring,  even  pugnacious, 
courage,  combined  with  human  sympathy  and 
democratic  interest  in  all  sorts  of  men,  when  they 

3 


4     IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

were  real  men — attracted  the  attention  of  hundreds 
of  young  Americans  of  his  own  age.  They  felt, 
somehow  or  other,  that  he  was  a  symbol  of  what 
young  America  could  do  if  it  tried. 

I  was  living  in  New  York  at  the  time,  working  as 
a  clerk  in  a  publishing  office,  and  the  picture  of 
this  young  college  man — a  graduate  of  Harvard 
in  the  Class  of  1880,  scarcely  a  year  older  than  my 
self,  fighting  for  decency  and  honesty  in  politics 
at  a  time  when  American  political  morals  were  at  a 
pretty  low  ebb — appealed  to  my  imagination,  and 
I  followed  his  political  career  with  intense  interest. 

But  I  was  not,  I  think,  altogether  blinded  by  my 
admiration,  for  although  I  was  born  and  brought 
up  a  Republican  of  a  somewhat  strict  sect,  I  voted 
for  Cleveland  in  the  presidential  election  of  1884 
as  a  protest  against  the  forces  behind  Elaine,  while 
Roosevelt,  having  opposed  as  strongly  as  he  could  • 
the  nomination  of  Elaine  in  the  Republican  Na 
tional  Convention,  nevertheless  voted  for  him  as 
His  party's  regular  candidate.  And  wisely,  I  think. 
.(PV  Roosevelt  had  deliberately  chosen  politics  as 
his  career,  intended  to  make  politics,  if  possible 
statesmanship,  his  profession;  and  in  a  two-party 
government  like  ours  the  political  administrator  and 
statesman  must  work  with  his  party  except  in  a  crisis 
of  the  utmost  national  import.  The  ordinary  citi- 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  5 

zen,  on  the  other  hand,  may,  and  often  should,  use 
his  vote  as  an  independent  instrument  to  serve  as 
a  check  upon  the  unwise  policies  or  unwholesome 
tendencies  of  the  party  in  power. 

It  is  difficult  to  look  back  over  a  span  of  thirty- 
five  years  and  recall  all  the  details  of  one's  feelings, 
even  in  the  field  of  politics  where,  generally,  the 
emotions,  prejudices,  and  passions  of  antipathy 
or  devotion  are  developed  and  manifested  in  their 
strongest  form.  But  apparently  my  difference  of 
opinion  with  Roosevelt  in  the  Elaine  campaign 
could  not  have  been  very  deep-seated,  for,  in  1886, 
when  he  ran  as  Republican  candidate  for  Mayor  of 
New  York  City,  I  supported  and  voted  for  him 
with  ardour.  It  was  a  "three-cornered  campaign," 
Abram  Hewett  being  the  Democratic  (and  success 
ful)  candidate  while  Henry  George,  the  distin 
guished  apostle  of  the  single  tax  doctrine,  repre 
sented  the  Radicals.  Although  Roosevelt  ran 
third  in  the  race  his  personality  as  a  candidate 
made  a  deep  impression  upon  me,  and  I  remember 
that  campaign  as  the  starting  point  of  a  political 
career  in  which  I  have  taken  a  constant  and,  when 
ever  I  could,  an  active  interest.  Whether  it  was 
because  this  mayoralty  contest  was  a  complete 
defeat  or  because  Roosevelt's  managers  made  it 
one  of  partisanship  rather  than  of  fundamental 


6     IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

principles  I  do  not  know,  but  the  fact  is  that  it 
made  little  impression  on  him  and  apparently  did 
not  especially  interest  him  as  one  of  the  milestones 
of  his  political  progress,  for  I  never  heard  him  talk 
about  it — as  he  was  glad  to  do  about  his  other 
political  experiences — and  he  does  not  even  men 
tion  it  in  his  autobiography! 

It  was  in  this  way  that  the  foundations  were 
laid  for  my  later  personal  friendship  with  Roosevelt 
and  for  my  sympathy  with  his  political  philosophy. 
But  I  did  not  make  his  personal  acquaintance  until 
1895  when  he  was  president  of  the  Board  of  New 
York  Police  Commissioners. 

William  L.  Strong,  a  well-known  and  public- 
spirited  merchant  of  New  York  City,  had  been 
elected  mayor  on  an  anti-Tammany  fusion  ticket 
in  1894.  One  of  the  factors  in  his  election  was  the 
work  done  by  the  "Good  Government  Clubs5' 
which  were  organized  in  various  districts  of  New 
York  City.  As  a  result  of  the  impetus  which  I 
have  received  from  the  political  work  and  qualities 
of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  I  entered  with  enthusiasm 
this  Good  Government  Club  movement  and  served 
as  a  watcher  at  the  polls  on  Election  Day  in  one  of 
the  toughest  Tammany  districts  in  what  was 
known  as  the  gas-house  quarter  on  the  East  Side. 

The  election  was  being  carried  on  under  a  new 


Brown  Brother 


Mr.   Roosevelt   as   president  of  the  Board  of  Police,  New 
York  City,  1895-97 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  7 

law,  which  I  had  taken  the  pains  to  study.  While 
at  the  outset  the  Tammany  "heelers"  and  even  the 
Tammany  policemen  endeavoured  to  browbeat 
and  obstruct  me,  I  found  before  the  night  was  over 
(because  they  became  convinced  that  I  intended 
to  be  fair  and  was  unwilling  to  throw  out  ballots 
on  mere  technicalities)  that  they  were  appealing  to 
me  for  help  in  the  canvassing;  finally,  they  accepted 
both  my  advice  and  my  decisions.  This  experience 
convinced  me  that  Theodore  Roosevelt's  doctrines 
of  political  management  and  administration  were 
workable.  And  so,  when  Mayor  Strong  appointed 
him  one  of  the  four  police  commissioners  and  he 
became  president  of  the  Board,  I  watched  with 
more  than  ordinary  interest  his  endeavours  to  make 
the  police  system  of  the  city  an  honest  and  effective 
one. 

One  day  Jacob  Riis — at  that  time  a  representa 
tive  of,  I  think,  the  Evening  Sun  at  Police  Head 
quarters — came  into  my  office,  when  I  told  him 
of  an  experience  that  I  had  had  with  a  drunken 
police  officer,  whose  number  I  had  taken  the  pre 
caution  of  noting  in  my  memorandum  book.  Riis 
asked  me  whether  I  had  any  objection  to  his  telling 
the  story  to  Roosevelt.  On  my  assent  he  evidently 
related  the  incident  to  the  new  commissioner  with 
all  the  colour  and  picturesqueness  that  character- 


g     IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ized  his  work  as  a  writer.  For,  in  a  day  or  two  he 
came  back  and  said  that  Commissioner  Roosevelt 
wanted  me  to  come  down  to  Police  Headquarters 
and  make  a  complaint  against  the  disreputable 
policeman.  I  went  down,  was  ushered  into  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  presence,  and  there  met  him  for  the 
first  time.  He  had  in  the  room  to  meet  me  the 
policeman  whose  number  I  had  given  to  Mr.  Riis. 
I  recognized  and  identified  the  man  and,  at  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  request,  made  the  proper  complaint. 
The  affair  resulted  in  a  police  trial  at  which  one  of 
Mr.  Roosevelt's  colleagues,  Commissioner  Parker, 
presided.  Commissioner  Parker  was  not  in  sym 
pathy  with  Mr.  Roosevelt's  efforts  to  take  the 
police  force  out  of  corrupt  politics,  and  although 
he  was  superficially  courteous  he  made  the  day 
that  I  spent  in  the  trial  room  one  of  the  most  un 
comfortable  of  my  life.  What  finally  was  the  dis 
position  of  the  case  I  do  not  know,  for  Commis 
sioner  Parker  suspended  judgment  at  the  conclu 
sion  of  the  trial.  But  I  have  never  regretted  that 
day,  miserable  though  it  was,  because  it  proved  to 
be  the  beginning  of  an  acquaintanceship  with 
Theodore  Roosevelt  which  later  became  an  intimate 
one  and  developed  into  what  was,  to  me,  a  deep 
and  delightful  friendship. 

One  of  the  most  readable  and  entertaining  chap- 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  9 

ters  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  autobiography  is  his  ac 
count  of  his  work  as  Police  Commissioner.  He  not 
only  tells  of  some  of  his  difficulties  but  relates 
stories  of  particular  officers,  like  those  of  Otto 
Raphael  and  Captain  Bourke  that  are  as  lively  and 
as  absorbing  as  any  novel.  His  final  estimate  of 
his  work  with  the  police  is  as  follows: 


Let  me  again  say  that  when  men  tell  me  that  the  police 
are  irredeemably  bad  I  remember  scores  and  hundreds  of 
cases  like  this  of  Bourke,  like  the  case  I  have  already  men 
tioned  of  Raphael,  like  the  other  cases  I  have  given  above. 
It  is  useless  to  tell  me  that  these  men  are  bad.  They  are 
naturally  first-rate  men.  There  are  no  better  men  any 
where  than  the  men  of  the  New  York  Police  force;  and  when 
they  go  bad  it  is  because  the  system  is  wrong,  and  because 
they  are  not  given  the  chance  to  do  the  good  work  they  can 
do  and  would  rather  do.  I  never  coddled  these  men.  I 
punished  them  severely  whenever  I  thought  their  conduct 
required  it.  All  I  did  was  to  try  to  be  just;  to  reward  them 
when  they  did  well;  in  short,  to  act  squarely  by  them.  I 
believe  that,  as  a  whole,  they  liked  me.  When,  in  1912,  I 
ran  for  President  on  the  Progressive  ticket,  I  received  a  num 
ber  of  unsigned  letters  inclosing  sums  of  money  for  the  cam 
paign.  One  of  these  inclosed  twenty  dollars.  The  writer, 
who  did  not  give  his  name,  said  that  he  was  a  policeman,  that 
I  had  once  had  him  before  me  on  charges,  and  had  fined  him 
twenty  dollars;  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  had  not  com 
mitted  the  offense  for  which  I  finedpiim,  but  that  the  evidence 
was  such  that  he  did  not  wonder  that  I  had  been  misled,  and 
never  blamed  me  for  it,  because  I  had  acted  squarely  and  had 
given  honest  and  decent  men  a  chance  in  the  Police  Depart 
ment;  and  that  now  he  inclosed  a  twenty-dollar  bill,  the 


io    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

amount  of  the  fine  inflicted  on  him  so  many  years  before. 
I  have  always  wished  I  knew  who  the  man  was. 

It  was  through  his  work  as  police  commissioner 
that  I  first  began  to  realize  Theodore  Roosevelt's 
deep-seated  human  sympathy  and  his  understand 
ing  of  human  character.  He  was  an  indefatigable 
worker  then  as  he  was  in  every  phase  of  his  life. 
He  was  not  too  busy  to  ask  me,  a  citizen  unknown 
to  him  and  holding  no  public  position,  to  come 
down  and  make  a  complaint  which  might  help  in 
the  work  he  was  trying  to  do.  Since  his  death,  an 
old  boyhood  friend  of  mine,  a  practising  physician 
in  New  York  City,  Dr.  Matthew  Beattie,  has  sent 
me  fifteen  letters  which  Commissioner  Roosevelt 
wrote  to  him  between  August,  1895,  and  December, 
1896.  They  are  only  a  few  of  a  much  larger  num 
ber,  nearly  forty  in  all. 

Dr.  Beattie  gives  me  the  following  interesting 
account  of  his  experiences  with  Mr.  Roosevelt  as 
to  police  reform: 

Mr.  Roosevelt  had  been  in  office  only  a  few  days  when  I 
called  on  him  at  Police  Headquarters  and  told  him  that 

No. and  No. on  the  block  on  which  I  lived  were, 

and  had  been  for  a  long  time,  houses  of  ill  fame.  Quick  as  a 
flash  he  replied  with  this  question:  "Doctor,  will  you  wait 
here  until  I  get  your  police  captain?"  Of  course  I  said 

"  yes."     Immediately  Captain  S. of  the  West Street 

station  was  summoned.     He  was  hardly  seated  and  informed 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  11 

of  my  complaint  when  Mr.  Roosevelt  walked  up  rather  close 
to  him  and  said,  with  great  determination:  "Captain,  I  will 
give  you  just  five  days  to  close  those  three  houses." 

In  three  days  all  three  houses  became  vacant  and  were 
respectable  boarding  houses  for  the  following  sixteen  years 
to  my  personal  knowledge. 

A  druggist,  living  about  half  a  mile  from  my  office,  wrote 
to  me  asking  me  to  use  my  influence  with  Police  Commissioner 
Roosevelt  to  curb  or  punish  a  drunken  policeman,  named 

M ,  who  often  insulted  women  in  his  drug  store  and  on 

the  near-by  streets.  I  presented  the  case  to  Mr.  Roosevelt 
who  at  once  asked  me  to  aid  him  in  a  little  detective  work  to 

catch  officer  M .  I  was  glad  to  do  so,  and  secured  the 

help  of  Professor  Harry  Cushing,  then  of  Columbia  College, 

who  lived  in  my  house.  .  .  .  M was  found  guilty 

of  being  off  post  and  fined  on  that  count.  Cushing  and 
I,  however,  had  not  proved  the  character  of  the  house  of  ill 
fame  which  we  saw  him  enter.  Therefore,  he  could  not  be 
dismissed  from  the  force  on  our  complaint,  but  I  was  in 
formed  that  he  was  dismissed  two  weeks  after  the  trial,  on 
another  charge. 

Two  of  these  letters  to  Dr.  Beattie  are  typical  of 
Mr.  Roosevelt's  methods.  The  first  illustrates  the 
directness  with  which  he  went  to  the  point : 

DEAR  DR.  BEATTIE: 

I  am  very  doubtful  indeed  about  the  captain  in  question, 
but  keep  a  close  eye  on  him. 
As  to  your  questions: 
I.     Continue  to  make  reports  to  me. 
II.     Grant  the  request. 

NIII.    Carry  a  pistol  and  apply  for  a  permit  to  the  Chief. 

Very  truly  yours, 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 


12    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

The  second  letter  illustrates  his  fairmindedness. 
The  Captain  S—  -  who  had  been  summoned  to 
Mr.  Roosevelt's  office,  on  Dr.  Beattie's  complaint, 
to  close  three  disorderly  houses  apparently  did  his 
duty  so  well,  after  he  found  that  he  had  a  real 
backer  in  the  new  commissioner,  that  he  brought 
down  on  his  head  the  wrath  of  the  powers  of  cor 
ruption.  When  Mr.  Roosevelt  found  that  he 
could  be  relied  upon  for  honest  work  he  supported 
him,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  second  letter: 

December  7,  1896. 
MY  DEAR  DR.  BEATTIE: 

Your  letter  gave  me-  sincere  pleasure.     I  have  reason  to 

believe  that  Captain  S has  been  persecuted,  not  for  his 

failings,  but  for  his  efficiency,  and  especially  because  of  the 
way  he  has  acted  in  support  of  you  and  your  representatives 
— conduct  that  has  cost  him  much  bitter  hostility.  I  trust 
you  will  be  willing  to  appear  as  a  witness  to  testify  in  his 
behalf  if  he  is  put  on  trial. 

Sincerely  yours, 
THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 

Beginning  with  his  police  commissionership  I 
came  into  contact  with  Mr.  Roosevelt  occasionally, 
but  it  was  not  until  he  was  about  to  leave  the 
White  House  that  the  real  association  began  upon 
which  these  impressions  are  based. 

Not  long  after  Mr.  Roosevelt's  election  to  the 
Presidency  in  1904  he  announced  that  he  would  not 
be  a  candidate  for  a  second  consecutive  term.  In 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  13 

the  summer  of  1905  I  began  to  turn  over  in  my 
own  mind  one  day  what  Mr.  Roosevelt  would  do 
when  he  left  the  Presidency.  It  seemed  to  me  that 
after  he  retired  from  official  life  he  must  have  some 
organized  means  of  expressing  his  views  and  exert 
ing  his  influence  on  public  questions.  He  was  not 
a  lawyer  by  profession,  as  so  many  other  ex-Presi 
dents  have  been,  and  he  could  not  go  into  active  in 
dustrial  or  financial  business.  That  had  been  tried 
by  one  ex-President,  General  Grant,  with  disastrous 
consequences.  Since  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  not  only  a 
statesman  but  a  man  of  letters,  I  wondered  whether 
some  form  of  journalism  in  which  he  could  take 
part  in  discussions  on  social,  economic,  and  poli 
tical  questions  would  not  be  appropriate.  Would 
it  be  possible  to  have  him  associate  himself  with 
the  Outlook?  With  this  idea  in  mind,  I  worked 
out  a  plan — coining  the  phrase  "  contributing 
editor'5 — and  it  was  put  before  him.  How  he  met 
it  is  described  in  a  letter  to  me,  dated  March  5, 
1917,  from  which  I  quote: 

It  was  your  father  and  you  yourself  who  personally  brought 
to  my  attention  the  idea  of  my  joining  the  Outlook  as  a  con 
tributing  editor.  This  was  in  the  White  House  at  the  be 
ginning  of  the  year  1906.  I  spoke  of  it  again  with  your 
father  that  summer  and  in  the  following  year,  but  I  came  to 
no  definite  decision  until  the  spring  or  early  summer  of  1908, 
when  you  came  to  see  me  at  Sagamore  Hill,  and  I  agreed 


I4    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

definitely  to  go  in  with  you  on  practically  the  basis  on  which 
I  afterward  did  go  in.  It  was  your  father  who  was  the  de 
cisive  factor  in  getting  me  to  accept.  I  might  have  accepted 
your  request  alone;  but  I  have  a  peculiar  feeling  for  your 
father.  I  regard  him  and  have  long  regarded  him  as  a  man 
who  in  a  way  stands  entirely  apart  from  all  others  in  our 
national  life,  and,  if  the  expression  does  not  seem  exagger 
ated,  my  regard  for  him  has  in  it  a  little  of  that  feeling  of 
reverence  which  is  perhaps  the  finest  feeling  an  old  man  can 
inspire  in  younger  men — even  when  these  younger  men,  like 
myself,  become  old  men!  I  felt  honoured  to  be  associated 
with  him,  and  I  was  also  very  glad  to  be  associated  with  the 
rest  of  you. 

The  result  of  these  negotiations  was  that  on  the 
7th  of  November,  1908,  the  Outlook  was  able  to 
announce  that  "on  and  after  the  5th  of  March, 
1909,  Theodore  Roosevelt  will  be  associated  with 
the  Outlook's  editorial  staff  as  special  Contributing 
Editor."  From  that  day  until  June,  1914,  he  was 
in  a  very  real  sense  a  member  of  our  staff.  He 
made  his  office  with  us  and  he  regularly  attended 
our  weekly  editorial  conferences. 

According  to  our  mutual  agreement  he  was  to 
be  free  to  express  his  own  views  over  his  own  name 
and  the  Outlook  was  equally  at  liberty  to  state  its 
opinion  even  when  it  varied  from  his  on  public 
questions.  We  rarely  differed,  but  when  we  did 
he  accepted  the  difference  of  opinion  with  perfect 
loyalty  to  the  understanding  which  was  the  basis 
of  our  joint  work.  He  believed  in  what  he  called 


Roosevelt  in  cowboy  costume  during  his  early  years  as  a 

ranchman 


'  *     r     r  °    ''  'n    *   "  ' 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  15 

"team-work,"  and  practised  his  belief.     He  lis 
tened  to  the  views  of  his  colleagues,  arid  often  modi 
fied  his  own  as  a  result  of  the  interchange  of  opin 
ion.     He  never  wrote  an  article  that  he  did  not, 
before  publication,  submit  to  one  of  us,  and  he  al 
most  invariably  accepted  our  suggestions,  some 
times  with  regard  to  verbal  expressions  and  some 
times  with  regard  to  change  of  ideas  or  views  of  the 
article.     I  do  not  mean  to  give  the  impression  that 
he  altered  his  mind  frequently.    On  matters  of 
principle  he  could  be  as  fixed  as  adamant.     But 
in  methods  of  putting  a  principle  into  effect  he 
habitually  sought  counsel  and  was  eager  to  adopt 
suggestions.     Not  only  did  he  contribute  to  our 
pages  articles  over  his  own  name,  but  his  wide 
experience,  his  comprehensive  knowledge  of  men 
and  affairs,  and  his  unique  ability  as  an  interpreter 
of  political  and  social  movements  found  expression 
in  our  own  editorials  through  the  comments  and 
suggestions  which  he  made  at  the  weekly  confer 
ences. 

One  of  the  first  results  of  his  prospective  connection 
with  the  Outlook  was  that  I  had  the  very  unusual,  if 
not  the  unique,  experience  of  attending  a  semi 
official  cabinet  meeting  in  Washington.  Mr.  Taft 
was  running  for  the  Presidency  against  Mr.  Bryan, 
and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  summer  of  1908  there 


16    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

was  great  anxiety  among  the  Republican  managers 
lest  Mr.  Bryan  might  be  elected  on  the  anti- 
corporation  "trust-busting"  issue.  He  was,  it  is 
true,  defeated  by  so  large  a  majority  that  these 
anxieties  now  seem  hardly  credible,  but  at  the 
time  they  were  very  real.  Governor  Haskell  of 
Oklahoma  was  the  treasurer  of  the  National  Demo 
cratic  Committee  and  Mr.  Bryan's  right-hand  man 
in  managing  his  campaign.  The  Outlook  had 
learned  that  the  university  professors  and  educa 
tors  of  Oklahoma  were  very  much  upset  by  Gover 
nor  Haskell's  management  of  the  educational  sys 
tem  of  that  state.  They  felt  that  he  was  trying 
to  prostitute  it  to  partisan  political  ends.  During 
a  visit  which  my  father  had  made  to  the  State  of 
Oklahoma  shortly  before  the  campaign  of  1908  he 
was  urged  to  defend  in  the  Outlook  the  university 
and  schools  of  Oklahoma  against  the  political 
machinations  of  Governor  Haskell.  My  father  was 
very  glad  to  do  this  and  the  Outlook,  supported 
by  documents  and  other  proof,  took  up  the  issue 
with  some  vigour.  For  when  political  bosses  en 
deavour  to  turn  a  state  educational  system  into  a 
political  machine  they  are  guilty  of  perhaps  the 
worst  form  of  political  corruption.  To  debauch 
the  public  schools  in  this  way  is  to  pollute  the  very 
springs  of  our  national  life.  Mr.  Roosevelt  knew 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  17 

and  approved  of  the  part  which  the  Outlook  had 
been  taking  in  this  controversy. 

One  September  Saturday  afternoon,  while  play 
ing  golf  at  my  summer  home  on  the  Hudson  about 
fifty  miles  from  New  York,  the  following  telegram 
was  repeated  to  me  by  telephone  from  my  office  in 
the  city: 

The  White  House,  Washington,  September  26,  1908. 
Lawrence  F.  Abbott 
The  Outlook 

New  York  City 

Letter  received.  If  you  want  to  write  on  Haskell  I  have 
many  records  to  show  you  which  you  ought  to  see.  Come 
on  to  see  me  this  evening  or  to-morrow  (Sunday)  afternoon 
or  evening.  Don't  forget  the  expression  used  by  one  of  the 
Oklahoma  senators  in  championing  Haskell  that  Haskell 
is  merely  Bryanism  in  action. 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 

In  reply  I  telegraphed  that  I  would  report  at 
the  White  House  the  next  morning,  Sunday,  at 
nine  o'clock.  Reluctantly  I  left  my  game  of  golf, 
hastily  packed  a  bag,  and  got  a  train  for  New  York 
which  enabled  me  to  take  the  midnight  express 
over  to  Washington. 

When  I  presented  my  card  at  nine  o'clock  at  the 
White  House  the  doorman  was  a  little  dubious, 
owing  to  the  very  unusual  hour  of  the  call,  but  it 
was  sent  to  the  President  who  summoned  me  to 
join  him.  I  found  him  at  breakfast  with  Mrs. 


i8    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt  at  a  small  round  table  on  the  back 
verandah  overlooking  the  pleasant  garden  with 
the  towering  Washington  Monument  in  the  dis 
tance.  He  explained  that  he  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt 
were  accustomed  to  breakfast  alone  on  Sunday 
mornings,  without  even  other  members  of  the 
family,  because  in  this  way  they  could  take  one 
of  the  very  few  opportunities  they  had  for  an 
hour  of  uninterrupted  companionship. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  informed  me  that  he  was  in 
the  process  of  an  exchange  of  open  letters  with 
Mr.  Bryan  on  issues  of  the  campaign;  that  he  had 
written  the  first  one;  that  Mr.  Bryan  had  replied; 
and  that  he  was  about  to  write  his  second  letter 
that  afternoon.  With  the  astute  wisdom  which  he 
showed  in  all  practical  matters,  Mr.  Roosevelt  had 
picked  out  the  Monday  morning  newspapers  as 
the  medium  for  his  open  letters.  Daily  newspaper 
editors  are  always  glad  to  get  some  striking  feature 
for  Monday  morning  since  the  Sunday  issue  has 
used  up  everything  of  sensational  value  in  hand. 

At  the  President's  invitation  I  returned  to  take 
luncheon  with  him  and  afterward  went  up  into  his 
study,  where  a  table  was  covered  with  documents 
and  records  of  all  kinds  regarding  the  cantpaign. 
At  three  o'clock  those  members  of  the  Cabinet 
who  were  then  in  Washington  came  to  the  room  by 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  19 

appointment  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  began  to  dictate 
the  open  letter  to  Bryan,  walking  up  and  down  the 
room  as  he  talked  to  the  stenographer  in  a  char 
acteristic  fashion.  Finally  he  came  to  a  criticism  of 
Mr.  Bryan  himself  and  was  making  the  application 
of  this  criticism  somewhat  personal  and  vigor 
ous,  whereupon  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  remarked : 
"Mr.  President,  it  does  not  seem  to  me  wise  to  make 
a  personal  attack  upon  Mr.  Bryan  and  certainly 
not  upon  Mr.  Bryan's  integrity,  for  such  an  attack, 
in  my  judgment,  would  react  in  his  favour."  Mr. 
Roosevelt  stopped  and  answered:  "Mr.  Secre 
tary,  I  want  to  dictate  this  letter  based  on  these 
documents  and  facts  before  me  with  perfect  free 
dom  of  expression.  I  want  you  to  listen  and  form 
your  own  judgment  and  to  come  back  at  nine 
o'clock  this  evening  prepared  to  make  any  sug 
gestions  or  modifications  that  occur  to  you."  He 
then  went  on  with  his  dictation  and  finished  the 
article  or  open  letter,  which  I  should  imagine  would 
have  taken  the  space  of  a  column  and  a  half  or  two 
columns  of  a  daily  newspaper.  At  the  conclusion  of 
the  session  which  was  attended  by  Secretary  Cortel- 
you  of  the  Treasury,  Secretary  Straus  of  the  Depart 
ment  of  Commerce  and  Labour,  Secretary  Meyer  of 
the  Navy,  and,  I  think,  one  other  member  of  the 
Cabinet  whose  name  I  cannot  recall  (these  gentle- 


20    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

men  being  the  only  members  of  the  Cabinet  in  town 
at  the  time) — I  went  back  to  my  hotel  much  im 
pressed  with  the  fact  that  I  had  been  a  spectator  of 
what  was  at  least  an  informal  Cabinet  meeting  in  ac 
tion.  I  was  also  impressed  with  the  conviction  that 
the  secretary  who  raised  the  question  about  a  person 
al  criticism  of  Mr.  Bryan  was  right  in  his  judgment; 
and  yet  I  thought  I  understood,  from  my  conver 
sations  with  him,  Mr.  Roosevelt's  own  point  of  view. 
I  therefore  wrote,  and  sent  to  the  White  House  by 
special  messenger,  a  note  something  like  this: 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PRESIDENT: 

May  I  venture  to  say  that  it  seems  to  me  that  Secretary 

was  right  in  deprecating  anything  that  appears  like  an 

attack  upon  Mr.  Bryan's  personal  integrity,  but  on  the  other 
hand  I  do  not  understand  that  you  desire  to  make  such  an 
attack.  Is  it  not  your  purpose  to  point  out  that  Mr.  Bryan's 
close  association  with  Governor  Haskell,  whose  methods  have 
been  dishonourable,  shows  not  a  lack  of  honour  but  a  lack  of 
wisdom  and  sound  judgment.  What  you  wish  to  say  to 
the  American  people,  as  I  understand  you,  is  that  if  Mr. 
Bryan  can  make  so  lamentable  an  error  of  judgment  as  to 
appoint  a  political  spoilsman  like  Governor  Haskell  as 
his  right-hand  man  and  lieutenant  in  this  campaign,  what 
guarantee  have  they  that  he  will  not,  if  elected  President, 
make  a  similar  mistake  of  judgment  in  appointing  the  mem 
bers  of  his  Cabinet  and  other  officers  of  the  Government  ? 

Five  minutes  after  this  note  had  gone  I  would 
have  given  a  good-sized  cheque  to  get  it  back. 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  21 

"What  have  I  done?"  I  said  to  myself/  "With 
only  a  limited  acquaintance  with  the  President, 
I  have  ventured  to  send  him  a  letter  of  advice 
in  a  matter  in  which  his  Cabinet  are  his  proper 
advisers!  He  is  reported  to  carry  'a  big  stick/ 
What  will  happen  to  me  when  I  go  back  to  him  this 
evening  ?"  For  he  had  invited  me  to  return  at  nine 
o'clock  to  be  present  when  the  letter  was  revised. 

I  dined  with  Secretary  Meyer  and  went  back  to 
the  White  House  at  nine  o'clock.  As  I  entered  the 
little  study  in  which  this  piece  of  work  was  done 
I  literally  trembled  in  my  shoes.  The  President 
was  sitting  at  his  desk,  in  a  swivel  chair,  with  his 
back  to  the  door.  He  swung  around,  greeted 
Secretary  Meyer,  said  good  evening  to  me,  and 
added:  " Thank  you  for  your  note,  Abbott.  I  was 
glad  to  get  it.  You  are  right.  I  shall  modify  the 
passage  about  Mr.  Bryan  accordingly." 

He  then  asked  the  three  or  four  members  of  the 
Cabinet  who  had  heard  him  dictate  the  letter  to  sit 
down,  and  requested  each  one  to  read  the  type 
written  transcript  of  the  dictation,  sheet  by  sheet, 
and  to  make  their  criticisms.  I  was  also  asked 
to  read  the  pages  as  they  left  the  hands  of  the  last 
Cabinet  officer.  Suggested  modifications  were 
freely  made  by  the  Cabinet  members  (I,  of 
course,  was  merely  a  silent  observer)  and  were 


22    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

incorporated  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  with  his  own  pen, 
until  some  of  the  pages  were  black  with  interline 
ation.  Each  revised  page  was  sent  out  to  be 
freshly  copied,  brought  in  for  the  President's  final 
vise,  and  then  sent  to  the  telegraph  office  downstairs 
for  immediate  transmission  through  the  Associated 
Press.  Every  suggestion,  with  one  exception,  was 
adopted  by  Mr.  Roosevelt.  I  think  it  was  Mr. 
Straus  who  asked  for  the  modification  of  one  sen 
tence  or  phrase  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  little  too 
severe.  The  President  turned  to  him  and  said :  "No, 
Mr.  Secretary,  I  think  it  should  stand  as  it  is.  You 
must  remember  that  this  is  a  poster,  not  an  etching !" 
This  incident  seems  to  me  to  be  worth  recording 
somewhat  fully  because  it  illustrates  what  was  one 
of  Roosevelt's  striking  characteristics  and  yet  a 
characteristic  which  the  general  public,  I  think, 
was  not  aware  of.  I  mean  his  constant  practice  of 
seeking  the  facts  and  complete  information  about  a 
given  matter  from  any  source  that  he  thought 
would  be  serviceable.  It  was  this  motive  that  led 
him  to  summon  me — a  comparatively  unknown 
man,  holding  no  public  or  cabinet  position — that  we 
might  be  able  mutually  to  help  each  other  in  giv 
ing  the  public  the  facts  about  Governor  Haskell. 
From  this  incident  the  reader  will  also  get  the 
impression,  and  I  think  it  is  the  correct  impres- 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  23 

sion,  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  in  all  his  public  acts 
sought  advice  and  followed  suggestions.  In  this 
instance  he  summoned  those  members  of  his 
Cabinet  who  were  available,  had  them  give  per 
sonally  and  collectively  three  or  four  hours'  con 
sideration  to  a  newspaper-campaign  letter,  and 
invited  and  adopted  their  modifications  and  advice. 
It  was  these  qualities  of  cooperation  which  made 
his  public  career  on  its  human  side  so  preeminently 
successful,  and  they  have  always  seemed  to  me  to 
be  important  traits  of  his  character — so  important 
that  I  shall  recur  to  them  more  than  once  as  I 
proceed. 

i  Roosevelt  was  not  only  a  staunch  advocate  of 
Ithe  doctrine  of  military  preparedness — to  which, 
by  the  way,  he  gave  expression  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
two  in  his  "Naval  History  of  the  War  of  1812," 
referred  to  more  fully  in  a  later  chapter — but  prac 
tised  preparedness  in  every  activity  of  his  life.  His 
desk  was  always  clear,  although  he  wrote  more 
letters  probably  than  any  other  man  of  his  time. 
His  articles  were  always  finished  on  the  day  and 
the  hour  when  they  were  promised — often  a  little 
beforehand.  He  pressed  his  work  instead  of  being 
pressed  by  it,  and  was  never  confused  or  worried 
by  an  accumulation  of  duties.  He  was  the  busiest 
man  I  ever  knew,  and  yet  he  never  seemed  to  be 


24    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

hurried.  In  other  words,  he  was  a  remarkable 
executive,  partly  because  he  knew  how  to  handle 
men  and  get  them  to  work,  but  very  largely,  I 
think,  because  he  practised  preparedness. 

For  example,  he  took  with  him  into  the  African 
wilderness  a  supply  of  stationery,  with  sheets  of 
carbon  paper  like  those  that  are  used  on  the  ordi 
nary  typewriter,  and  indelible  pencils,  and  wrote 
in  duplicate  by  means  of  the  carbon  paper,  under 
what  to  most  men  would  have  been  impossible 
conditions,  some  of  his  book,  "African  Game 
Trails,"  and  at  least  one  of  the  important  addresses 
that  he  delivered  in, Europe.  He  was  distinctly 
what  some  of  my  Yankee  forbears  would  have 
called  "forehanded." 

A  significant  instance  of  this  forehandedness  was 
his  first  editorial  act  as  a  member  of  the  staff  of 
the  Outlook.  He  relinquished  the  Presidency  on 
March  4,  1909,  and  sailed  for  Africa  on  March  23rd. 
In  characteristic  fashion,  he  instantly  turned  from 
the  work  of  President  to  that  of  editor.  Indeed, 
while  still  President  he  had  written  half  a  dozen 
editorial  articles  and  had  them  all  ready  for  pub 
lication.  Wednesday,  March  loth,  was  his  in 
auguration  day  as  one  of  the  editorial  board. 
When  it  came  his  turn  to  suggest  a  topic  for  edito 
rial  consideration  he  said:  "I  wonder  whether 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  25 

you  would  be  willing  to  tell  the  story  of  the 
Government's  prosecution  of  the  Sugar  Trust 
for  its  criminal  attempt  to  evade  paying  cus 
toms  duties?  The  Government,  in  the  face  of 
incredible  difficulties,  has  won  its  case,  and  the 
Sugar  Trust  has  been  convicted  of  smuggling  sugar 
by  the  daily  use  of  a  fraudulent  device  extending 
over  a  period  of  some  years.  Unfortunately,  for 
mysterious  reasons  which  it  is  not  wholly  difficult 
to  explain,  the  New  York  daily  press  has  practically 
ignored  the  Government's  victory  and  its  dramatic 
incidents,  and  the  public  therefore  does  not  know 
all  it  should  about  the  crime,  and  the  success  of 
the  Government  in  ferreting  it  out  and  punishing 
it.  There  may  be  good  reasons  why  you  do  not 
want  to  go  into  this  matter,  but  if  you  do  I  shall 
be  glad  to  see  that  you  are  supplied  with  all  the 
facts  in  the  case." 

Of  course  we  instantly  said  that  we  should  be 
glad  to  take  the  matter  up  and  would  do  all  we 
could,  with  his  help  and  direction,  to  make  the  case 
public.  With  a  smile  he  responded:  "I  rather 
thought  that  would  be  your  decision,  and  so  I  have 
taken  the  liberty  of  asking  United  States  District 
Attorney  Stimson  and  his  assistant,  Mr.  Denison, 
to  come  here  this  morning;  they  are  now  outside  in 
the  reception  room  with  a  large  bag  full  of  docu- 


26    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ments  and  other  interesting  pieces  of  evidence 
that  we  used  in  the  trial/' 

Mr.  Stimson  and  Mr.  Denison  were  instantly 
invited  to  ioin  us,  and  they  related  one  of  the  most 
dramatic  stories  of  fraud  and  prosecution  that  I 
have  ever  listened  to.  They  had  with  them  some 
of  the  incredibly  ingenious  and  delicate  mechanical 
devices  which  the  Sugar  Trust  had  used  in  making 
the  scales  on  the  pier  where  the  sugar  was  unloaded 
register  false  weights.  The  result  of  this  story  led 
us  to  take  the  matter  up  with  care,  and  Mr.  Harold 
J.  Rowland,  of  our  editorial  staff,  wrote  an  article — 
after  a  very  careful  study  of  the  case,  aided  by  both 
Mr.  Stimson  and  Mr.  Denison — entitled:  "The 
Case  of  the  Seventeen  Holes/*  It  was  published 
in  the  Outlook  a  month  later,  and  created  some 
thing  of  a  sensation.  It  may  be  added  that  Mr. 
Stimson  later  became  Secretary  of  War  in  the 
Cabinet  of  President  Taft;  and  Mr.  Denison  be 
came  Secretary  of  the  Interior  of  the  Philippine 
Islands  and  member  of  the  Philippine  Commission. 

It  seems  worth  while  to  make  these  brief  records 
of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  essays  in  journalism  because 
probably  it  was  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States  that  an  ex-President  had  chosen 
journalism  as  his  professional  career  on  returning 
to  private  life.  After  leaving  the  Outlook  in  1914, 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  27 

Mr.  Roosevelt  became  editorially  associated  with 
the  Metropolitan  Magazine,  and,  still  later,  an 
editorial  contributor  to  the  Kansas  City  Star. 
Thus  he  was  engaged  in  active  journalism  for  ten 
years  from  the  time  he  ceased  to  be  President  in 
1909  until  his  death.  Indeed,  he  wrote  editorials 
for  the  Kansas  City  Star  almost  up  to  the  very 
hour  of  his  death,  for  one  of  his  last  acts,  the 
evening  before  he  suddenly  and  unexpectedly 
passed  away,  was  to  correct  the  proof  of  a  Star 
editorial.  His  success  as  a  journalist  is  only  an 
other  striking  illustration  of  his  almost  unmatched 
versatility.  Historians  say  that  he  might  have 
been  a  historian;  biologists  and  zoologists,  that  he 
might  have  been  a  scientific  naturalist;  soldiers,  that 
he  would  have  made  a  great  professional  soldier.  It 
is  equally  clear  that  if  the  environment  of  his  early 
life  had  so  influenced  him  he  might  have  become  a 
great  newspaper  editor.  He  had  the  instinct  for 
news  and  the  faculty  for  interesting  the  public  in  it. 
He  also  had  what  is  more  important,  but  too  often 
lost  sight  of  in  modern  journalism:  definite  views 
as  to  the  moral  standards  which  ought  to  apply 
to  the  trade  or  profession  of  newspaper  men  as 
rigorously  as  the  ethics  of  the  medical  profes 
sion  or  the  obligations  of  the  Hippocratic  oath 
apply  to  doctors.  In  his  first  editorial  he  used 


28    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

these  words  of  one  of  the  banes  of  American 
newspaper  life: 

Yellow  journalism  deifies  the  cult  of  the  mendacious, 
the  sensational,  ^nd  the  inane,  and,  throughout  its  wide 
but  vapid  field,  does  as  much  to  vulgarize  and  degrade 
the  popular  taste,  to  weaken  the  popular  character,  and  to 
dull  the  edge  of  the  popular  conscience,  as  any  influence  under 
which  the  country  can  suffer.  These  men  sneer  at  the  very 
idea  of  paying  heed  to  the  dictates  of  a  sound  morality;  as 
one  of  their  number  has  cynically  put  it,  they  are  concerned 
merely  with  selling  the  public  whatever  the  public  will  buy — 
a  theory  of  conduct  which  would  justify  the  existence  of  every 
keeper  of  an  opium  den,  of  every  foul  creature  who  ministers 
to  the  vices  of  mankind. 

To  these  words  he  added  the  comment  upon  his 
new  editorial  associates  that  "it  is  perhaps  not 
especially  to  their  credit  that  they  have  avoided 
this  pit;  fortunately  they  are  so  constituted  that 
it  is  a  simple  impossibility  for  them  to  fall  into  it." 
He  defined  his  journalistic  creed  as  follows:  "It 
is  not  given  to  humanity  never  to  err";  but  the 
right-minded  editor  "makes  a  resolute  effort  to 
find  out  what  the  facts  actually  are  before  passing 
judgment/'  He  "believes  that  things  in  this 
world  can  be  made  better/'  but  he  "does  not  in 
dorse  quixotic  movements  which  would  merely 
leave  things  worse."  He  "  feels  a  peculiar  desire 
to  do  all  that  can  be  done  for  the  poor  and  the  op- 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  29 

pressed,  and  to  help  upward  those  struggling  to 
better  themselves";  but  he  "has  no  sympathy 
with  moral  weakness  or  sentimentality."  All 
that  he  can  he  "does  and  will  do  for  the  cause  of 
labour;"  but  he  "will  in  no  shape  or  way  condone 
violence  or  disorder."  He  "stands  for  the  rights 
of  property,  and  therefore  against  the  abuses  of 
property."  He  "believes  in  a  wise  individualism, 
and  in  encouragement  of  individual  initiative; 
and  therefore  all  the  more  ...  in  using  the 
collective  force  of  the  whole  people  to  do  what,  but 

for  the  use  of  that  collective  force,  must  be  left 

» 

undone." 

It  may  not  be  inappropriate  to  conclude  this 
chapter  of  journalistic  reminiscences  with  one  of 
the  amusing  incidents  connected  with  Mr.  Roose 
velt's  new  journalistic  venture;  I  say  "amusing," 
although  at  the  time  it  was  vexatious  and  dis 
turbing. 

The  late  James  Stillman,  one  of  the  foremost  rail 
way  financiers  and  bankers  of  the  United  States, 
had  been  for  more  than  thirty  years  a  personal 
friend  as  well  as  a  neighbour  of  my  father  and 
had  aided  him  in  the  purchase  of  the  journal  which 
later  became  the  Outlook.  The  result  was  that 
he  was  a  stockholder  in  the  Outlook  Company 
although  he  owned  less  than  a  tenth  interest. 


30    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

In  becoming  a  stockholder  he  had  simply  performed 
a  generous  act  for  a  personal  friend  and  he  had 
never  in  any  way  attempted  to  influence  the  policy 
of  the  paper.  He  had  never  even  attended  a 
stockholders'  meeting  either  in  person  or  by  proxy. 
He  was  in  1909  closely  associated  with  the  Stand 
ard  Oil  Company  both  through  family  and  finan 
cial  connections.  A  New  York  daily  newspaper 
in  search  of  a  sensation  announced  that  Mr.  Still- 
man  was  a  stockholder  of  the  Outlook  and  that, 
therefore,  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  connected  himself 
with  a  journal  controlled  by  the  Standard  Oil 
Company.  In  view  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  attitude  at 
that  time  toward  the  great  corporations  and  the  pro 
ceedings  at  law  which  his  administration  had  in 
stituted  against  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  the 
newspapers  took  this  piece  of  gossip  up  and  it 
created  a  lively  though  temporary  furore.  The 
facts  were  frankly  stated  in  the  pages  of  the  Out 
look,  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  himself,  in  November, 
1908,  made  the  following  statement  through  the 
public  press: 

The  President  has  not  the  slightest  concern  with  the  ques 
tion  as  to  who  are  the  stockholders  of  the  Outlook.  His 
concern  is  with  the  general  policy  of  the  paper,  which  is  and 
has  been  consistently  admirable  in  every  respect.  The 
President  will  be  responsible  only  for  what  he  himself  writes; 


Theodore  Roosevelt  in  1885.  This  picture  was  taken  in 
North  Dakota  four  years  after  Joe  Murray  started  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  political  career 


ACQUAINTANCESHIP  31 

and  his  probable  future  attitude  must  be  judged  by  his  action 
in  the  past. 

Referring  to  this  episode  President  Roosevelt 
wrote  me  from  the  White  House  on  November  14, 
1908: 

;  You  need  not  be  in  the  least  sorry.  I  was  not  caused  the 
slightest  annoyance  by  the  statement  about  the  Standard 
Oil  control  of  the  paper.  On  the  contrary,  the  only  effect 
was  to  give  the  heartiest  enjoyment  to  the  entire  Cabinet  at 
the  Cabinet  meeting — and  the  Cabinet  meetings  are  rarely 
melancholy  anyhow!  I  wanted  very  much  to  issue  a  state 
ment  to  the  effect  that  if  the  Standard  Oil  really  controlled 
the  Outlook,  I  thought  they  must  have  experienced  a  change 
of  heart  when  they  hired  me  to  write  editorials  for  it!  But 
I  thought  it  was  not  worth  while.  Last  summer  your  father 
told  me  substantially  what  you  tell  me  now,  namely,  that 
.  Mr.  Stillman  who  was  an  old  friend  and  neighbour 
.  •  .  .  owned  less  than  a  tenth  of  the  stock,  and  never 
made  any  effort  to  influence  the  course  of  the  paper.  It  was 
on  the  tip  of  my  tongue  to  say  that  that  was  self-evident 
from  all  I  had  seen  in  the  paper,  but  I  did  not  say  so  because 
I  was  afraid  your  dear  father  might  think  I  was  speaking 
a  little  harshly  of  Mr.  Stillman.  Let  me  say  that  I  have 
never  heard  anything  to  Mr.  Stillman's  discredit. 

The  spirit  of  this  note  is  one  that  actuated  Theo 
dore  Roosevelt  in  all  his  journalistic  relations. 
He  was  quick  to  see  the  good  in  every  man  and 
while  in  controversy  he  often  "got  mad, "  to  use 
the  vivid  expression  of  boyhood,  he  never  stayed 


32    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

mad  nor  cherished  resentments  of  any  kind.  He 
was  always  ready  to  renew  friendly  relations  with 
an  antagonist  unless  they  had  been  broken  be 
cause  of  some  fundamental  vicious  streak  in  his 
opponent  which  could  not  be  remedied  by  any  kind 
of  readjustment. 


CHAPTER  II 
POLITICS 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT  was  born  into  the 
Republican  party  as  inevitably  as  Woodrow 
Wilson  was  born  a  Democrat,  a  fact  which  may 
well  arouse  some  curious  and  interesting  specula 
tion  about  the  influence  of  birth  and  heredity  upon 
statesmanship  and  national  history.  If  Roose 
velt's  father  had  been  a  Southerner,  as  his  mother 
was,  and  Theodore  had  been  born  at  "Roswell," 
the  maternal  family  homestead  in  Georgia,  it  is 
quite  possible,  perhaps  even  probable,  that  he 
would  have  become  a  member  of  the  Democratic 
party.  But  his  ancestry  and  surroundings  in  New 
York  being  what  they  were,  it  was  as  natural  for 
him  to  attach  himself  to  the  Republican  party  as 
it  was  to  go  to  Harvard  College.  In  fact,  in  his 
autobiography  he  intimates  as  much  himself  in 
these  words : 

At  that  day,  in  1880,  a  young  man  of  my  bringing  up  and 
convictions  could  join  only  the  Republican  party,  and  join  it 
I  accordingly  did.  It  was  no  simple  thing  to  join  it  then. 
That  was  long  before  the  era  of  ballot  reform  and  the  control 

33 


34    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

of  primaries;  long  before  the  era  when  we  realized  that  the 
Government  must  take  official  notice  of  the  deeds  and  acts 
of  party  organizations.  The  party  was  still  treated  as  a  pri 
vate  corporation,  and  in  each  district  the  organization  formed 
a  kind  of  social  and  political  club.  A  man  had  to  be  regularly 
proposed  for  and  elected  into  this  club,  just  as  into  any  other 
club.  As  a  friend  of  mine  picturesquely  phrased  it,  I  "had 
to  break  into  the  organization  with  a  jimmy." 

Had  Theodore  Roosevelt  become  a  scientific 
naturalist,  as  Father  Zahm  thinks  he  might  have, 
or  a  historian  and  man  of  letters,  as  Brander 
Matthews  almost  wishes  he  had,  he  would  doubt 
less  have  habitually  voted  the  Republican  ticket 
although  his  energies  would  never  have  been  de 
voted  to  political  administration.  But  since  his 
career  was  that  of  a  statesman  it  is  interesting  to 
know  how  it  happened  that,  at  twenty-two  years 
of  age,  he  became  a  Republican  office-holder  and 
thus  entered  upon  an  active  political  life. 

Various  people  have  claimed  the  honour  of  first 
suggesting  his  name  as  a  Republican  candidate  for 
the  New  York  Legislature.  The  matter,  however, 
is  easily  settled  on  Theodore  Roosevelt's  own  au 
thority.  He  says  that  the  man  who  launched  him 
into  practical  politics  was  Joe  Murray,  a  Republican 
leader — "lesser  captain"  Mr.  Roosevelt  calls  him 
— in  the  twenty-first  district  Republican  Associa 
tion  in  the  City  of  New  York.  In  one  of  the  most 


POLITICS  35 

entertaining  and  readable  chapters  of  his  auto 
biography  Mr.  Roosevelt  tells  the  story  and  testi 
fies  to  his  respect  and  friendship  for  Joe  Murray. 
Joe  Murray's  version  of  this  important  episode  in 
the  life  of  the  future  President  of  the  United  States 
has  never  yet,  so  far  as  I  know,  been  publicly  told, 
and  I  am  fortunate  in  being  able  to  reproduce  it 
here.  I  came  into  possession  of  the  story,  which 
I  shall  proceed  to  relate  in  Mr.  Murray's  own 
words,  in  this  way. 

In  1910,  when  Theodore  Roosevelt  returned  from 
his  memorable  trip  through  Africa  and  Europe,  he 
was  appealed  to  by  a  group  of  younger  men  in  the 
Republican  party  to  aid  them  in  attempting  to 
wrest  the  party  control  from  the  hands  of  the  so- 
called  "Old  Guard."  He  somewhat  reluctantly 
consented,  as  will  appear  hereafter,  and  went  to 
the  State  Republican  Convention  at  Saratoga  as 
an  ordinary  delegate  from  Nassau  County.  I  hap 
pened  to  be  elected  to  the  same  convention  as  an 
alternate  delegate  from  my  own  county,  Orange.  I 
went  from  New  York  to  Saratoga  in  company  with 
Mr.  Roosevelt.  On  the  train  he  introduced  me  to 
a  strong,  vigorous,  ruddy-faced  man  of  about  sixty, 
saying:  "I  want  you  to  know  my  friend,  Joe  Mur 
ray.  He  started  me  in  politics.  Take  him  into  the 
smoking  room  and  get  him  to  tell  you  the  story." 


36    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Whereupon  Murray  and  I  went  into  the  smoking 
compartment  of  the  parlour  car  and  he  told  me  in  a 
most  entertaining  fashion  how  he  happened  in 
1 88 1  to  pick  Theodore  Roosevelt  as  a  candidate 
for  the  Legislature.  The  main  points  and  the 
agreeable  flavour  of  Joe  Murray's  story  have  re 
mained  with  me  ever  since.  But  in  order  to  be  ver 
bally  accurate  I  got  him  to  come  to  my  office  not 
long  after  Mr.  Roosevelt's  death  and  tell  me  the 
story  again.  I  am  sure  that  Mr.  Murray  will  not 
object  to  my  giving  his  colloquial  and  intimate 
language  just  as  it  fell  from  his  lips,  for  it  consti 
tutes,  I  think,  a  human  document  of  both  charm 
and  importance  in  the  record  of  Theodore  Roose 
velt's  political  career.  Incidentally,  it  reveals 
some  of  the  methods  of  American  politics  at  the 
time  when  Roosevelt  was  getting  his  first  impres 
sions  of  the  need  of  social,  industrial,  and  political 
reforms.  This  is  the  story,  verbatim  et  literatim, 
taken  down  stenographically  as  Joe  Murray  told 
me  how  he  first  met  young  Roosevelt: 

JOE  MURRAY'S  STORY 

In  1 88 1  Jake  Hess  was  the  leader  in  the  Republican  Twenty- 
first  Assembly  District  organization  of  this  city,  the  boun 
daries  of  which  were  the  north  side  of  Fortieth  Street,  the 
south  side  of  Fifty-ninth  Street,  the  east  side  of  Seventh 
Avenue,  and  the  west  side  of  Lexington  Avenue.  Its  head- 


POLITICS  37 

quarters  were  Morton  Hall  at  Fifty-ninth  Street  and  Fifth 
Avenue,  on  the  southeast  corner.  At  that  time  a  hotel  had 
been  started  there  by  Tweed,  but  was  never  completed.  The 
iron  frame-work  was  partitioned  off,  and  our  organization 
occupied  a  portion  of  it,  with  stores  underneath.  The  por 
tion  which  we  occupied  was  known  as  Morton  Hall. 

In  those  days  I  believed  in  the  organization  and  I  do  now 
to  a  very  large  extent,  but  I  did  not  think  it  was  infallible. 
It  makes  mistakes.  I  believe  to  keep  the  party  strong  it 
is  necessary  to  keep  it  pure. 

In  1 88 1,  after  the  district  was  portioned  off,  we  elected 
a  man  for  the  Legislature.  The  newspapers  made  a  rather 
severe  attack  on  him,  and  Major  Bullard,  who  was  one  of  the 
leaders  in  our  organization,  and  myself  had  an  idea  that  if  he 
was  renominated  it  would  be  necessary  for  us  to  have  a 
defensive  campaign,  which  is  not  a  good  thing  for  a  Republican 
candidate.  This  Assemblyman  had  supported  Platt  and 
Conkling,  the  state  bosses,  in  the  previous  Legislature,  and 
they  wanted  him  renominated,  if  he  desired  it,  as  a  reward 
for  his  loyalty.  Major  Bullard  and  myself  did  not  think  he 
could  be  elected,  and  we  considered  that  it  would  be  a  disaster 
to  the  Republican  party  to  have  the  Twenty-first  District  go 
Democratic.  Jake  Hess  wanted  to  follow  the  wishes  of  the 
State  bosses,  Platt  and  Conkling,  and  intended  to  nominate 
this  man  even  if  he  couldn't  be  elected. 

Hess  was  at  that  time  one  of  the  Commissioners  of  Chari 
ties  and  Corrections,  and  was  of  course  a  very  influential 
man  in  the  party,  while  I  was  more  or  less  insignificant  com 
pared  to  him.  He  and  Major  Bullard  and  I  got  together  to 
arrange  a  ticket  for  the  coming  primaries. 

What  Hess  and  Bullard  and  myself  had  to  do  was  to  pick 
out  the  delegates  to  be  elected  to  the  conventions,  including 
the  Assembly  Convention  which  was  going  to  nominate  our 
candidate  from  the  district.  Hess  wanted  me  as  a  delegate 
to  the  Congressional  Convention  and  also  to  the  Senatorial 
Convention  because  I  was  familiar  with  the  routine;  but  I 


38   IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

wanted,  although  I  did  not  say  so,  to  have  a  part  in  the 
Assembly  Convention  in  order  to  prevent  the  renomination 
of  this  weak  candidate  that  I  have  already  spoken  of.  I  as 
sented  to  Hess's  wishes  and  was  a  delegate,  but  I  paid  no 
attention  to  either  the  Senatorial  or  the  Congressional  Con 
vention.  Of  course  we  knew  beforehand  that  William  Wal 
dorf  Astor  was  to  be  our  Congressional  candidate.  What  I 
wanted  to  give  my  special  attention  to  was  the  Assembly 
Convention,  although  I  was  not  a  regular  delegate.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  while  I  was  not  a  delegate  to  the  Assembly 
Convention,  Major  Bullard  and  I  named  fifteen  out  of  the 
twenty-five  delegates  to  this  convention  among  our  personal 
friends  on  whom  we  could  depend. 

Major  Bullard,  like  myself,  was  a  veteran  of  the  Civil  War. 
He  and  I  went  down  to  see  Hess  at  the  office  of  the  Commis 
sioner  of  Charities  on  Third  Avenue,  and  there  we  met  the 
candidate  who  represented  the  district  the  year  previous 
and  was  seeking  renomination.  We  took  a  walk  over  to  the 
Sinclair  House  to  get  a  drink.  Bullard  and  Hess  walked 
ahead,  the  Assemblyman  and  I  were  behind  them.  On  the 
way  over  the  Assemblyman  says  to  me:  "Joe,  don't  you  think 
I  ought  to  get  a  larger  vote  this  year  than  I  did  a  year  ago?" 
I  says:  "For  what?"  He  says:  "For  the  Assembly,  of  course. 
You  know  I  am  better  known  now  than  I  was  then."  I  says: 
"Well,  you're  certainly  better  known.  The  fact  of  it  is  that 
anybody  who  knows  you  wouldn't  vote  for  you."  He  says: 
"You'd  vote  for  me,  wouldn't  you?"  "Billy,"  I  says,  "I 
know  a  trick  or  two  better  than  that.  I  wouldn't  do  any 
thing  of  the  kind." 

So  after  we  got  to  the  bar-room  he  was  particularly  anxious 
to  get  away  from  me  in  order  to  talk  to  Hess.  (Up  to  this 
time  Hess  knew  nothing  about  this  or  about  the  position 
which  Bullard  and  I  were  taking.  But  the  delegates  had 
been  picked  and  he  could  not  do  anything.)  After  awhile, 
however,  the  prospective  candidate  got  away.  He  went 
over  to  Hess,  and  after  talking  with  him  a  very  short  time  I 


©  Brown  Brothers 

Mr.  Roosevelt  as  a  member  of    the  New  York  Assembly 


©  Brown  Brothers 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  Civil  Service  Commissioner,  1889  to  1895 


POLITICS  39 

saw  Hess  look  over  at  me.  We  had  our  drink  and  went  out. 
Hess  then  says  to  me:  "Billy  tells  me  that  you  are  opposed 
to  him."  I  says:  "Yes."  "Well,"  he  says,  "he  will  be 
nominated  anyway.  You  don't  amount  to  anything."  I 
says:  "No?  Well,  I  don't  amount  to  much,  but  if  Billy  goes 
up  to  the  Legislature  he  certainly  will  not  be  indebted  to  Joe 
Murray!" 

Of  course  Hess  had  a  copy  of  the  list  of  delegates  selected — 
the  primary  ticket — and  he  sent  a  man  named  Jake  Weller 
and  his  brother  Charlie  around  to  see  the  different  delegates. 
Some  of  them  told  these  men  that  they  had  not  made  up 
their  minds;  but  the  majority  of  them  said:  "Charlie,  I 
should  like  to  do  you  a  favour  very  much,  but  I  promised  Joe 
Murray  to  vote  for  his  candidate."  When  we  had  reached 
this  point  Major  Bullard  and  I  were  sure  of  the  convention. 
Now  the  thing  to  do  was  to  get  a  candidate. 

A  night  or  two  after  this  talk  at  the  Sinclair  House  Mr. 
Roosevelt  came  around  to  a  regular  meeting  at  Morton  Hall 
to  enter  his  protest  against  the  renomination  of  the  candidate 
that  the  county  organization  desired  to  have  renominated. 
So  I  spoke  to  young  Roosevelt  that  night.  I  told  him  that 
I  was  also  opposed  to  the  renomination  of  the  regular  candi 
date  and  that  I  was  looking  around  to  try  to  get  a  suitable 
candidate.  I  had  seen  young  Roosevelt  at  the  meetings  of 
the  organization.  My  first  interest  in  him  was  that  of  a  vote- 
getter.  It  was  later  that  I  became  interested  in  him  as  a  man. 

At  that  time  Columbia  College  was  in  the  district.  His 
father  figured  more  or  less  prominently  in  philanthropy,  and 
the  name  was  a  good  one.  In  addition  to  that,  I  thought 
I  would  interest  the  football  team  of  Columbia,  the  baseball 
team,  and  the  other  different  athletes  connected  with  the 
College,  together  with  the  professors,  among  the  most  prom 
inent  of  whom  was  Professor  Van  Amringe.  Later,  this  pro 
fessor  got  out  and  worked  like  a  beaver. 

When  I  asked  young  Roosevelt  if  he  would  take  the  nomi 
nation,  he  says:  "No,  I  wouldn't  dream  of  such  a  thing.  It 


40    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

would  look  as  though  I  had  had  selfish  motives  in  coming 
around  to  oppose  this  man."  "Well,"  I  says,  "get  me  a 
desirable  candidate."  "Oh,"  he  says,  "you  won't  have 
any  trouble."  "Well,"  I  says,  "it  looks  kind  of  easy,  but 
so  far  I  have  not  been  able  to  get  a  candidate — the  kind  of  a 
candidate  that  the  Major  and  I  think  is  a  suitable  one.  We 
want  to  get  the  strongest  one  we  can." 

So  finally  he  promised  to  look  around.  By  that  time  I 
made  up  my  mind  that  it  was  Theodore  Roosevelt  or  no  one. 
Of  course  I  did  not  tell  him  so.  We  parted  that  night,  and 
I  met  him  by  appointment  the  next  night.  I  forget  now 
whether  he  asked  me  if  I  had  a  candidate  or  whether  I  asked 
him  if  he  had  found  any  one.  Neither  one  of  us  had  one. 
I  says:  "The  convention  meets  in  a  couple  of  nights  and  we 
have  got  this  man  beaten,  but  we  have  no  candidate.  What 
excuse  can  we  give  to  the  organization  for  not  renominating 
this  man  when  we  have  no  candidate?" 

"We  won't  have  any  trouble  in  getting  a  candidate,"  says 
Roosevelt. 

I  says:  "I  hope  not,  but  Mr.  Roosevelt,  in  case  we  can't 
get  a  suitable  candidate,  will  you  take  the  nomination?" 

He  hesitated  a  moment,  and  says:  "Yes,  but  I  don't  want 
it.  In  the  meantime,  I  want  you  to  promise  me  that  if  you 
can  find  a  suitable  man,  have  no  hesitancy  about  nominating 
him  and  do  not  take  me  into  consideration." 

I  says:  "All  right,  I'll 'do  it."  But  I  knew  what  I  was  going 
to  do.  So  I  met  him  the  next  night,  and  I  reached  out  to 
shake  hands  with  him,  and  instead  of  taking  one  hand  he 
grabbed  both  hands. 

He  says:  "Mr.  Murray,  I  have  done  you  a  great  injustice. 
I  had  an  idea  that  you  were  guying  me.  I  met  our  friend, 
Mr.  Edward  Mitchell  [afterwards  United  States  District 
Attorney  and  one  of  the  Trustees  of  Columbia  College  at 
the  time]  this  morning.  I  had  a  talk  with  him,  and  I  told 
him  about  my  conversation  with  Mr.  Murray.  He  said: 
* Mister  Murray?  Do  you  mean  Joe  Murray?'  I  said, 


POLITICS  41 


'Yes.'  He  said:  'Mr.  Roosevelt,  did  he  tell  you  he  would 
nominate  you?'  I  said  'Yes.'  And  Mitchell  answered  me 
and  said:  'Well,  Joe  is  not  in  the  habit  of  making  statements 
that  he  cannot  make  good.  There  is  one  thing  I'll  tell  you. 
You  have  fallen  into  very  good  hands."1 

"Oh,"  I  says,  when  Mr.  Roosevelt  finished  his  story  about 
Mitchell,  "that's  all  right."  Afterward  he  made  me  say 
that  I  should  have  no  hesitancy  about  pulling  him  out  if  I 
could  get  another  candidate. 

The  Convention  met  a  couple  of  nights  after  that.  Hess 
started  around  to  capture  my  delegates.  I  had  an  idea  that 
two  could  play  at  that  game.  Therefore  while  he  was  trying 
to  capture  four  or  five  of  my  delegates,  I  happened  to  capture 
one  of  his;  so,  instead  of  the  vote  being  fifteen  to  ten,  it  was 
sixteen  to  nine. 

After  his  nomination  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Hess,  Bullard, 
and  I  went  out  on  a  personal  canvass.  It  was  the  custom  in 
those  days  to  visit  the  gin-mills,  the  stores,  and  places  of 
business.  The  first  place  we  happened  to  go  into  was  the 
lager-beer  saloon  on  Sixth  Avenue,  near  _  Fifty-fifth  Street 
kept  by  a  German  named  Fischer.  Hess  introduced  Mr. 
Roosevelt  to  the  proprietor  as  the  candidate  for  Assembly. 
Mr.  Fischer  says  to  him:  "Well,  Mr.  Roosevelt,  the  liquor 
interest  has  not  been  getting  a  square  deal.  We  are  paying 
excessive  taxes.  I  have  no  doubt  that  you  will  try  to  give 
us  some  relief  when  you  get  up  to  the  Legislature."  (One 
of  the  grievances  of  Mr.  Fischer  was  that  the  license  was  too 
high.)  Mr.  Roosevelt  asked  him:  "Mr.  Fischer,  what  is  the 
license  now?"  Mr.  Fischer  named  the  figure — what  he  had 
to  pay — and  Mr.  Roosevelt  says,  "Well,  that's  not  right. 
I  don't  think  you  pay  enough.  I  thought  it  would  be  at 
least  twice  as  much!" 

After  that  we  hustled  him  out  and  told  him  that  he  had 
better  see  to  the  college  boys  and  his  friends  on  Fifth  Avenue, 
the  society  folks;  that  Hess,  Bullard,  and  I  would  do  the 
other  end. 


42    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

I  took  charge  of  his  canvass.  Mr.  Roosevelt  referred  a 
great  many  of  his  friends  to  me  to  find  out  what  they  could  do, 
among  them  being  Professor  Van  Amringe — I  recollect  him 
because  he  was  more  active  than  the  others.  Quite  a  few 
of  the  football  team,  two-thirds  of  the  baseball  team,  and 
the  boxing  club  and  the  wrestlers  came  down  to  see  what 
they  could  do.  I  told  them  to  go  around  to  see  their  friends. 
They  wanted  to  know,  however,  what  they  could  do  on  Elec 
tion  Day.  I  told  them  that  they  could  stand  at  the  booths 
and  ask  their  friends,  irrespective  of  politics,  to  vote  for 
Roosevelt.  But  a  very  large  majority  wanted  to  know  where 
the  tough  districts  were.  I  wanted  to  send  them  to  the  dude 
districts  where  they  belonged,  as  I  thought,  but  they  thought 
they  would  be  of  more  service  where  there  was  more  fighting  to 
be  done.  So  the  districts  that  we  considered  difficult  to 
carry  were  the  ones  that  were  particularly  well  manned.  In 
fact,  we  had  ten  men  where  under  ordinary  circumstances 
we  would  only  send  one.  There  were  no  special  difficulties 
in  the  election,  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  Tammany  men 
knew  what  was  coming  to  them  if  they  started  any  rough 
house. 

Some  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  friends  who  had  "inside  informa 
tion,"  as  they  thought,  came  around  and  told  him  that  I 
was  an  organization  man,  and  that  we  wanted  to  elect  Mr. 
Astor  at  all  hazards;  that  he  was  simply  put  up  for  trading 
purposes  in  order  to  get  votes  for  Astor  from  the  Democrats, 
while  in  return  we  would  vote  for  the  Democratic  candidate 
for  Assembly.  There  were  twenty-five  election  districts, 
and  we  only  carried  twenty-three  out  of  the  twenty-five  for 
Roosevelt.  It  did  not  look,  therefore,  as  though  we  had  done 
much  trading.  The  fact  of  the  matter  is  there  might  have 
been  some  trading,  but  if  there  was  we  did  not  get  the  worst  of 
it.  As  Mr.  Roosevelt  has  said  in  his  autobiography,  it  was  a 
question  between  Jake  Hess  and  Joe  Murray.  If  Mr. 
Roosevelt  was  beaten  Mr.  Murray  was  beaten,  and  Joe  could 
not  afford  to  have  himself  beaten. 


POLITICS  43 

Is  it  not  a  matter  of  satisfaction,  a  source  of  a 
kind  of  affectionate  pride  to  those  who  believe  in 
American  democracy,  that  Theodore  Roosevelt 
had  this  kind  of  introduction,  thus  described  by 
Joe  Murray,  into  the  career  which  was  eventually 
to  make  him  one  of  the  great  figures  of  world  his 
tory  ?  There  is  certainly  a  distinctively  American 
flavour  in  the  fact  that  the  Irish  immigrant  of  sim 
ple  origin  and  the  native  American  of  aristocratic 
lineage  thus  formed  a  political  and  personal  ac 
quaintanceship  which  ripened  into  a  friendship 
that  lasted  until  the  day  of  the  ex-President's 
death.  It  reveals  a  certain  endearing  human  qual 
ity  in  Theodore  Roosevelt  to  know  that  he  often 
expressed  his  sense  of  indebtedness  to  Murray 
as  though  the  latter  had  been  one  of  his  earliest 
preceptors  in  the  practice  and  philosophy  of  poli 
tics.  Indeed,  he  says  of  Murray  in  his  autobi 
ography: 

We  never  parted  company  excepting  on  the  question  of 
Civil  Service  Reform,  where  he  sincerely  felt  that  I  showed 
doctrinaire  affinities,  that  I  sided  with  the  Pharisees.  We 
got  back  again  into  close  relations  as  soon  as  I  became  Police 
Commissioner  under  Mayor  Strong,  for  Joe  was  then  made 
Excise  Commissioner,  and  was,  I  believe,  the  best  Excise 
Commissioner  the  city  of  New  York  ever  had.  He  is  now  a 
farmer,  his  boys  have  been  through  Columbia  College,  and 
he  and  I  look  at  the  questions,  political,  social,  and  industrial, 


44    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

which  confront  us  in  1913,  from  practically  the  same  stand 
point,  just  as  we  once  looked  at  the  questions  that  con 
fronted  us  in  i 88 I. 

Theodore  Roosevelt's  political  creed  was  indeed, 
from  the  very  beginning,  a  distinctively  human 
one.  He  liked  men  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
life  so  long  as  they  were  really  men.  He  was  not  a 
"hail  fellow  well  met"  of  the  shoulder-slapping 
variety.  No  man  knew  better  than  he  how  to 
command  respect  and  how  to  preserve  his  own  dig 
nity.  But  when  he  formed  a  friendship — and 
no  man  of  our  time  has  had  wider,  deeper,  or  more 
varied  friendships — his  personal  relations  with  his 
friends  were  natural,  simple,  and  confident.  For 
him,  a  fundamentally  good  quality  in  a  man  cov 
ered,  like  charity,  a  multitude  of  sins,  which  would 
have  repelled  a  more  austere  and  exacting  judge. 
At  the  same  time  his  own  standards  were  extraor 
dinarily  high  and  consistent.  Yet  he  was  often 
accused  of  associating  and  working  with  political 
publicans  and  sinners — by  men  whom  it  is  perhaps 
not  unfair  to  call  political  Pharisees.  This  appar 
ent  anomaly  was  clearly  seen  to  be  no  anomaly 
at  all  by  those  who  understood  his  own  doctrine  of 
political  association.  It  was  once  expressed  by 
him  to  his  intimate  friend,  Jacob  Riis,  in  a  pic 
turesque  and  illuminating  fashion:  "I  suppose," 


POLITICS  45 

he  said,  speaking  of  his  earliest  experiences  in  the 
New  York  Legislature,  "that  my  head  was  swelled. 
It  would  not  be  strange  if  it  was.  I  stood  out  for 
my  own  opinion  alone.  I  took  the  best  '  mug 
wump'  stand — my  own  conscience,  my  own  judg 
ment  were  to  decide  in  all  things.  I  would  listen 
to  no  argument,  no  advice.  I  took  the  isolated 
peak  on  every  issue,  and  my  associates  left  me. 
When  I  looked  around,  before  the  session  was  well 
under  way,  I  found  myself  alone.  I  was  absolutely 
deserted.  The  people  didn't  understand.  The 
men  from  Erie,  from  Suffolk,  from  anywhere,  would 
not  work  with  me.  'He  won't  listen  to  anybody,' 
they  said,  and  I  would  not.  My  isolated  peak  had 
become  a  valley;  every  bit  of  influence  I  had  had 
was  gone.  The  things  I  wanted  to  do  I  was  power 
less  to  accomplish.  I  looked  the  ground  over,  and 
made  up  my  mind  that  there  were  several  other 
excellent  people  there,  with  honest  opinions  of  the 
right,  even  though  they  differed  from  me.  I  turned 
in  to  help  them,  and  they  turned  to  and  gave  me  a 
hand.  And  so  we  were  able  to  get  things  done. 
We  did  not  agree  in  all  things,  but  we  did  in  some, 
and  those  we  pulled  at  together.  That  was  my 
first  lesson  in  real  politics.  It  is  just  this:  if  you 
are  cast  on  a  desert  island  with  only  a  screwdriver, 
a  hatchet,  and  a  chisel  to  make  a  boat  with,  why, 


46    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

go  make  the  best  one  you  can.  It  would  be  better 
if  you  had  a  saw,  but  you  haven't.  So  with  men. 
Here  is  my  friend  in  Congress  who  is  a  good  man,  a 
strong  man,  but  cannot  be  made  to  believe  in  some 
things  in  which  I  trust.  It  is  too  bad  that  he 
doesn't  look  at  it  as  I  do,  but  he  does  not,  and  we 
have  to  work  together  as  we  can.  There  is  a  point, 
of  course,  where  a  man  must  take  the  isolated  peak 
and  break  with  all  his  associates  for  clear  principle : 
but  until  that  time  comes  he  must  work,  if  he 
would  be  of  use,  with  men  as  they  are.  As  long 
as  the  good  in  them  overbalances  the  evil,  let  him 
work  with  them  for  the  best  that  can  be  obtained." 
One  of  the  common  virtues  that  most  strongly 
appealed  to  him,  socially  as  well  as  politically,  was 
dependability.  He  was  chary  of  making  promises 
himself  but  when  he  did  make  them  he  kept  them 
and  he  expected  other  men  to  do  so,  too.  No  Re 
publican  leader  of  the  late  eighties  was  more  gener 
ally  charged  with  being  pastmaster  in  all  the  arts 
and  finesse  of  reactionary  and  corrupt  machine 
politics  than  Senator  Matthew  Quay  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  popularly  known  as  "Matt"  Quay.  Now 
Roosevelt  had  not  the  slightest  toleration  for  cor 
ruption  of  any  kind,  but  I  have  heard  him  more 
than  once  defend  "Matt"  Quay  against  attacks 
on  the  ground  that  when  Quay  made  a  promise  to 


POLITICS  4^ 

perform  a  certain  act  or  to  take  a  certain  course 
that  he  could  be  depended  upon  to  carry  out  that 
promise  no  matter  what  the  political  cost  to  his  own 
interests  might  be.  And  I  have  also  heard  him  in 
the  same  spirit  criticize  with  almost  extravagant 
severity  a  great  leader  of  the  Republican  party, 
whom  the  people  at  large  regarded  as  a  shining 
exemplar  of  uprightness  and  high  principles,  be 
cause  this  leader  would  make  a  promise  and  then 
fail  to  carry  it  out  loyally  and  energetically. 

There  naturally  was  never  a  warm  friendship 
between  this  leader  and  Mr.  Roosevelt,  a  lack  of 
friendship  which  by  Mr.  Roosevelt's  critics  was 
sometimes  ascribed  to  jealousy — a  wholly  mistaken 
diagnosis,  in  my  judgment.  There  was  not  a 
tinge  of  jealousy  in  Theodore  Roosevelt's  disposi 
tion.  He  was,  however,  attracted  by  loyalty  and 
dependability  and  repelled  by  what  he  thought  to 
be  austere  or  selfish  aloofness. 

As  an  illustration  I  may  perhaps  without  im 
propriety  refer  to  his  relations  with  Senator  Root 
who  was  Secretary  of  War  and  Secretary  of  State 
in  the  Cabinet  of  President  Roosevelt,  and  whom 
Mr.  Roosevelt  often  named  as  one  of  the  ablest, 
wisest,  and  most  patriotic  statesmen  that  the 
country  has  ever  produced.  In  1912,  when  Roose 
velt  left  the  Republican  party  after  being  defeated 


48    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

for  the  presidential  nomination  by  methods  which 
he  thought  were  unjust  and  un-American,  and  by 
an  unparalleled  stroke  of  political  skill  formed  the 
Progressive  party  and  became  its  presidential 
nominee,  his  political  and  personal  relations  with 
Mr.  Root  were  severed.  But  while  in  that  hot  and 
bitter  campaign  he  denounced  others  among  his 
political  opponents  in  terms  that  sometimes  had 
the  flavour  of  primitive  man,  I  never  heard  him 
once,  either  in  private  or  in  public,  utter  a  personal 
criticism  of  Mr.  Root.  Indeed  he  defended  Mr. 
Root  against  the  criticisms  of  his  (Roosevelt's), 
own  friends  who  felt  resentment  that  Mr.  Root's 
rulings  as  chairman  of  the  Republican  National 
Convention  had  deprived  Roosevelt  of  the  nomi 
nation  which  the  people  at  large  really  wished  him 
to  have.  More  than  once  I  have  heard  him  say 
when  Mr.  Root's  " steam-roller"  methods  of  seat 
ing  and  unseating  delegates  at  the  Convention 
were  denounced  as  inexplicable  disloyalty  to  his 
former  Chief:  "No,  you  are  wrong.  It  was  not 
disloyal.  Elihu  Root  has  the  legal  temperament 
developed  to  a  high  degree.  His  first  duty  he 
conscientiously  believes  is  to  his  client.  When  he 
was  a  practising  lawyer  before  going  into  the  Gov 
ernment  the  corporations  were  his  clients,  and  he 
was  for  the  corporations.  When  he  became  a 


POLITICS  49 

member  of  my  Cabinet  the  United  States  was  his 
client,  and  he  was  for  the  United  States  and  against 
the  corporations.  As  chairman  of  that  convention 
the  Republican  party  and  its  managers  were  Root's 
clients,  and  he  was  for  them  and  against  me." 

The  fact  is  that  Roosevelt  respected,  I  think  it 
may  be  even  said  that  he  admired,  this  quality  of 
loyalty  in  Mr.  Root,  although  he  believed  it  to  be 
misdirected  in  the  campaign  of  1912  and  felt  that 
he  was  unjustly  a  sufferer  from  the  misdirection. 

Theodore  Roosevelt's  career  both  as  a  politician 
and  a  statesman — I  say  politician  and  statesman 
because  I  think  there  is  a  real  distinction  between 
the  two  which  I  shall  try  to  make  clear  in  a  later 
chapter — was  consistent,  coherent,  and  coordinated. 
This  statement  may  be  challenged.  For  his  public 
life  was  broken  up,  so  to  speak,  into  so  many  bril 
liant  and  dramatic  episodes  that  these  episodes,  to 
the  observer,  sometimes  seemed  to  be  wholly  unre 
lated  and  not  infrequently  antagonistic. 

For  example,  in  1884  Roosevelt  was  a  delegate 
to  the  National  Republican  Convention  which 
nominated  James  G.  Elaine  for  the  Presidency. 
He  opposed  that  nomination  and  fought  vigorously 
in  behalf  of  the  candidacy  of  Senator  George  F. 
Edmunds  of  Vermont.  But  Mr.  Elaine  was  nomi 
nated.  In  spite  of  his  ability  and  brilliance  there 


50    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

were  some  financial  incidents  in  his  political  career 
which  were  repellent  to  a  large  wing  of  the  Repub 
lican  party  who  were  then,  as  Mr.  Roosevelt  was, 
working  for  the  reenforcement  of  the  principle  of 
common  honesty  in  practical  politics.  This  group 
of  Republicans  bolted  the  nomination,  forming 
what  was  then  known  as  the  " mugwump"  group, 
and  supported  Mr.  Cleveland,  the  Democratic 
candidate.  Although  Roosevelt  was  only  twenty- 
five  years  old  he  had  made  himself  a  figure  in  the 
convention  as  well  as  in  the  party.  It  was  thought 
by  the  leading  "mugwumps"  that  he  would  sym 
pathize  with  them  and  join  them  in  their  support 
of  Cleveland.  They  were  mistaken,  however.  He 
supported  Elaine,  and  gave  his  reasons  for  so  doing 
in  the  following  public  statement: 

I  intend  to  vote  the  Republican  Presidential  ticket.  A 
man  cannot  act  both  without  and  within  the  party;  he  can 
do  either,  but  he  cannot  possibly  do  both.  Each  course  has 
its  advantages,  and  each  has  its  disadvantages,  and  one  can 
not  take  the  advantages  or  the  disadvantages  separately. 
I  went  in  with  my  eyes  open  to  do  what  I  could  within  the 
party;  I  did  my  best  and  got  beaten,  and  I  propose  to  stand 
by  the  result. 

Was  his  action  in  the  Elaine  campaign  consistent 
with  his  action  in  1912  when  he  bolted  the  nomi 
nation  of  Mr.  Taft,  formed  the  Progressive  party, 
and  ran  as  a  candidate  for  President  himself?  The 


POLITICS  51 

consistency,  it  seems  to  me,  is  a  very  real  one.  It 
is  found  in  the  statement  made  to  Jacob  Riis 
which  I  have  quoted  earlier  in  this  chapter: 
"There  is  a  point  where  a  man  must  take  the  iso 
lated  peak  and  break  with  all  his  associates  for 
clear  principle:  but  until  that  time  comes  he  must 
work,  if  he  would  be  of  use,  with  men  as  they  are. 
As  long  as  the  good  in  them  overbalances  the  evil 
let  him  work  with  them  for  the  best  that  can  be 
obtained." 

In  1884  he  believed  that  it  was  his  duty  to  work 
with  the  Republican  organization.  In  1912  he  be 
lieved  the  time  had  come  to  take  to  the  "isolated 
peak"  and  to  summon  his  supporters  to  join  him. 
Both  actions,  seemingly  so  contradictory,  were 
based  upon,  and  were  the  logical  result  of,  a  funda 
mental  political  and  moral  philosophy.  I  propose 
in  the  next  chapter  to  try  to  outline  why  Theodore 
Roosevelt  was  led  to  create  the  Progressive  party 
and  to  oppose  the  candidacy  of  Mr.  Taft — the  most 
dramatic  and  outstanding  event  in  his  career  as  a 
political  manager. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY 

TT  7HEN  Roosevelt  emerged  from  the  African 
^  *  wilderness  in  March,  1910,  I  met  him  at 
Khartum  in  the  desert  on  the  edge  of  the  jungle, 
fifteen  hundred  miles  up  the  river  Nile  from  Cairo. 
He  had  no  sooner  discarded  the  trappings  of  the 
jungle— and  rather  ragged  and  dilapidated  trappings 
they  were — and  resumed  the  garb  of  the  civilian  en 
grand  tour — in  his  case  this  garb  was  always  simple 
and  unaffected  though  appropriate — than  he  was 
confronted  with  all  sorts  of  invitations  to  take  up 
politics  again.  These  invitations  were  conveyed 
by  letter,  cablegram,  and  even  by  personal  delega 
tion.  He  was  asked  to  become  a  candidate  for 
mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York  and  for  senator 
from  the  State  of  New  York,  for  example.  All 
these  invitations  he  declined  with  decision  and 
without  discussion.  In  more  than  one  conver 
sation  he  declared  that  his  greatest  desire,  his 
sole  ambition,  was  to  return  to  his  home  at  Saga 
more  Hill,  Oyster  Bay,  for  which  I  know,  as  do  all 
his  friends,  that  he  had  a  deep  and  abiding  affec- 

52 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  53 

tion.  There  it  was  his  plan,  he  said,  to  live  the  life 
of  a  country  gentleman,  spending  his  time  out  of 
doors  in  the  countryside  which  he  knew  so  well, 
and  his  time  indoors  in  study,  reading,  and  in  writ 
ing  on  historical,  scientific,  or  political  questions, 
with  such  occasional  public  speaking  as  might  be 
appropriate.  I  am  reminded  of  what  Roosevelt 
said  at  that  time  by  an  incident  related  by  Brander 
Matthews  in  a  note  which  I  received  from  him  after 
Roosevelt's  death: 

I  think  it  was  in  February,  1893,  that  we  spent  a  week 
in  Washington.  We  dined  one  night  with  the  Roosevelts. 
I  made  some  pleasant  allusion  to  his  future  in  public  life. 
He  looked  at  me,  seriously  and  almost  sadly.  (Roosevelt 
was  then  Civil  Service  Commissioner.)  Then  he  said:  "My 
future?  How  can  I  have  a  future  in  public  life?  Don't  you 
know  as  Civil  Service  Commissioner  I  have  made  an  enemy 
of  every  professional  politician  in  the  United  States?  I  can't 
have  any  political  prospects." 

I  retorted  that  he  would  be  President  sooner  or  later. 
Whereupon  he  smiled  and  asked,  "Then  what  will  you  want  ?" 
And  then  I  smiled  and  answered:  "I  think  I  would  rather  go 
to  London." 

In  this  same  vein  Roosevelt  said  to  me  in  Khar 
tum:  "My  political  career  is  ended.  No  man  in 
American  public  life  has  ever  reached  the  crest  of 
the  wave  as  I  appear  to  have  done  without  the 
wave's  breaking  and  engulfing  him.  Remember 
Dewey." 


54    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

In  reply  I  told  him  I  did  not  think  the  two  cases 
were  at  all  parallel;  that  the  American  people  knew 
him,  Roosevelt,  after  thirty  years  of  trial  in  the 
whitest  kind  of  light;  that  his  acts,  achievements, 
and  character  were  tested  and  understood;  and  that 
the  people  had  taken  him  into  their  confidence  and 
affection  permanently,  for  better  or  for  worse.  On 
the  other  hand,  I  argued  that  Dewey  had  suddenly 
been  seized  upon  as  a  kind  of  idol  by  the  American 
people,  not  because  they  knew  him  very  well,  but 
because  of  one  great  dramatic  episode;  and  that 
when  he  did  something  which  they  disliked  they 
discarded  him,  although  unjustly,  without  any 
wrench  or  sense  of  personal  loss.  "No,"  insisted 
Roosevelt,  "I  am  going  down  like  Dewey."  More 
than  once  during  our  journey  through  Europe 
he  referred  to  this  assumed  parallel  in  his  career 
and  that  of  the  hero  of  the  Naval  Battle  at  Manila. 
"Remember  Dewey"  became  almost  a  slogan  or 
shibboleth  in  our  political  conversations,  although 
Roosevelt  used  it  not  jocosely  but  very  seriously. 

Coming  back  on  the  steamer  from  Southampton 
to  New  York  in  June  of  that  year,  the  usual  enter 
tainment  given  in  the  saloon,  for  the  benefit  of 
some  seamen's  fund  or  other,  took  the  form  of  a 
"chalk  talk"  by  the  late  Homer  Davenport,  then  one 
of  the  foremost  of  American  newspaper  cartoon- 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY 


55 


ists.  The  passenger  list  of  the  ship  was  a  very 
large  one,  many  people  choosing  this  particular 
steamer  because  Roosevelt  was  on  it,  and  the  saloon 


"He's  good  enough  for  all  of  us!" 

A  Davenport  cartoon  of  the  presidential  campaign  of  1904  in  which  Mr.  Bryan  wa» 
thought  to  be  not  wholly  averse  to  Judge  Parker's  defeat 

on  the  evening  when  Davenport  spoke  was  crowded 
to  its  extreme  capacity.  Davenport's  "chalk talks" 
consisted  of  a  series  of  stories,  usually  humorous, 
each  one  being  illustrated  by  a  picture  or  a  portrait 
which  he  rapidly  drew  with  black  crayon  on  a  very 


56    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

large-sized  pad  of  brown  paper  placed  on  an  easel 
in  sight  of  the  audience.  On  this  particular  even 
ing  the  last  story  which  he  told  was  one  about  Ad 
miral  Dewey.  The  story,  somewhat  condensed, 
ran  about  as  follows: 

At  the  time  when  Admiral  Dewey  was  being  bitterly  at 
tacked  in  the  newspapers,  and  criticized  throughout  the 
country  because  of  the  disposition  which  he  made  of  the 
house  presented  to  him  in  honour  of  his  victory  at  Manila, 
I  published  in  one  of  the  newspapers  a  cartoon  in  his  defense. 
I  thought  the  Admiral  was  most  outrageously  treated,  and 
I  rather  laid  myself  out  to  make  the  cartoon  a  striking  and 
effective  one.  A  few  days  after  it  was  published  a  friend  of 
mine  who  knew  Dewey  met  me  on  the  street  in  New  York  and 
said:  " Dewey  has  seen  your  cartoon  and  wants  to  see  you. 
Will  you  go  over  to  Washington?"  "Sure,"  I  replied.  We 
went  over,  and  my  friend  took  me  to  the  Admiral's  house. 
We  entered  the  drawing  room;  I  was  presented  to  Mrs. 
Dewey;  and  just  as  the  Admiral  came  forward  to  give  me 
his  hand,  he  burst  into  tears  and  threw  himself  upon  a  sofa 
in  a  paroxysm  of  weeping.  Mrs.  Dewey  apologized  and 
said:  "You  must  excuse  the  Admiral,  Mr.  Davenport.  He 
has  been  wrought  almost  to  a  pitch  of  nervous  prostration 
by  the  unjust  attacks  made  upon  him.  We  had  decided  to 
go  to  Europe,  never  to  set  foot  on  American  soil  again,  and 
had  actually  packed  our  trunks  when  we  saw  your  cartoon. 
It  was  the  first  ray  of  light,  and  made  us  change  our  minds, 
and  we  have  decided  to  remain  in  America,  although  some  of 
our  trunks  are  still  upstairs  just  as  we  packed  them  for  our 
departure." 

Davenport  thereupon  rapidly  sketched  a  portrait 
of  Admiral  Dewey  and  his  talk  or  lecture  was 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  57 

finished.  There  were  calls  for  Mr.  Roosevelt. 
He  rose: 

"  Mr.  Davenport,"'  said  he,  "may  I  ask  if  the  story 
you  have  just  related  of  Admiral  Dewey  is  accurate 
in  all  its  details,  or  have  you  taken  the  pardonable 
liberty  of  an  artist  and  put  in  a  little  colour?" 

"No,"  answered  Davenport,  "the  incident  is 
just  as  I  related  it,  in  every  detail." 

Whereupon  Mr.  Roosevelt  paid  an  eloquent 
tribute  to  Dewey,  defending  him  from  the  attacks 
that  had  been  made  upon  him,  and,  after  thanking 
Davenport,  sat  down.  I  happened  to  be  next  to 
him,  and  immediately  on  taking  his  seat  he  turned  to 
me,  and — recalling  the  numerous  times  in  the  month 
or  two  preceding  in  which  he  had  remarked  that  he 
was  "going  down  like  Dewey" —said,  sotto  voce., 
"  Lawrence,  they  may  treat  me  like  Dewey,  but  I'll 
tell  you  one  thing,  I  shall  neither  weep  nor  shall  I  go 
to  Europe!" 

Unhappily  first  the  country  and  then  the  Gov 
ernment  did  treat  him  like  Dewey,  but  he  neither 
wept  nor  did  he  abandon  his  country.  He  did 
not  even  show  resentment  or  disappointment,  but 
kept  up  his  fight  to  the  very  end,  in  the  greatest 
good  spirits.  His  buoyancy,  his  capacity  to  rise 
superior  to  all  external  disappointments,  was,  I 
think,  one  of  his  greatest  qualities. 


58    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

When  Roosevelt  arrived  in  New  York  in  June, 
1910,  after  more  than  a  year's  absence,  and  after 
President  Taft's  Administration  had  been  in  power 
for  more  than  a  year,  he  found  the  Republican 
party  in  a  condition  of  chaos,  if  not  completely 
disrupted.  He  believed  that  under  the  leaders 
then  in  control  the  party  was  going  backward,  that 
instead  of  being  a  party  of  progress  it  was  becoming 
a  party  of  reaction.  His  foresight  was  confirmed 
in  the  autumn  by  the  Democratic  victories  and 
especially  by  the  loss  to  the  Republican  party  of 
Ohio,  President  Taft's  own  state.  The  disruption 
was  caused  by  "Cannonism"  the  term  used  to 
describe  Speaker  "Joe"  Cannon's  control  of  party 
councils  and  party  legislation,  by  the  controversy 
over  the  Ballinger  case  and  by  Mr.  Taft's  ap 
parent  indecision  and  inconsistent  public  utter 
ances  on  the  tariff  question.  This  domination  of 
the  reactionary  group  led  some  of  the  younger  and 
forward-looking  men  in  the  party  to  make  a  pro 
test.  It  was  rebellion,  and  was  in  fact  called  the 
Insurgent  Movement.  It  is  well  to  remember  that 
the  Insurgents  (so-called)  of  1910  were  the  direct 
political  progenitors  of  the  Progressives  of  1912. 

It  is,  of  course,  a  fact  that  not  long  after  his  re 
turn  from  Europe  in  1910  Mr.  Roosevelt  did  plunge 
into  active"politics  again,  was  elected  a  delegate  to 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  59 

the  State  Republican  Convention  at  Saratoga,  and 
made  himself  the  leader  of  that  convention,  not  by 
"steam-roller  methods" — for  he  did  not  possess 
the  power  of  official  authority — but  by  the  sheer 
force  of  his  personal  influence  and  persuasive  argu 
ment.  He  not  only  did  not  shut  off  debate  but 
contended  that  the  "Old  Guard,"  or  Reactionary 
Group,  should  have  complete  freedom  of  discussion 
and  the  right  to  vote  untrammelled  by  any  tech 
nical  procedure.  It  was  the  most  open  and,  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  word,  the  most  democratic  con 
vention  that  New  York  had  seen  for  a  long  time. 
Roosevelt's  candidate  for  governor,  Mr.  Henry  L. 
Stimson — later  from  1911  to  1913  Secretary  of 
War — was  nominated  for  governor  although  he 
was  defeated  for  election  in  the  autumn  by  Mr. 
Dix,  the  Democratic  candidate.  Mr.  Stimson's 
defeat  at  the  polls  was  regarded  as  a  defeat  for 
Roosevelt,  and  his  opponents  asserted  that  it 
meant  the  elimination  of  his  active  influence  or 
authority  in  American  politics.  But  in  this  judg 
ment  they  were  as  mistaken  as  he  himself  had  been 
when  he  compared  himself  to  Admiral  Dewey. 

How  is  it  possible  to  reconcile  Mr.  Roosevelt's 
professions  that  he  wished  to  keep  out  of  active 
politics  and  had  no  ambition  for  political  prefer 
ment,,  with  his  political  activities  in  the  summer  of 


60    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

1910,  his  organization  of  the  Progressive  party  in 
1912,  and  his  candidacy  for  President  under  the 
auspices  of  that  party?  It  was  commonly  said  at 
the  time,  and  is  perhaps  now  believed  by  some 
people,  that  his  course  was  prompted  by  the  desire 
to  destroy  Mr.  Taft  politically  because  of  rancour 
and  antagonism  that  had  sprung  up  between  them. 
Fortunately  I  have  in  my  possession  a  document 
which  may  throw  some  light  upon  this  question. 

I  had  known  through  intimate  association  with 
Mr.  Roosevelt  of  all  the  incidents  which  had  led 
to  the  estrangement  between  himself  and  Mr.  Taft. 
In  the  various  political  contests  between  1910  and 
1912  people  had  not  infrequently  come  to  me  and 
asked  for  the  facts,  or  had  made  statements  to  me 
that  I  knew  were  not  accurate.  I  finally  went  to 
Mr.  Roosevelt  and  asked  his  permission  to  describe 
the  situation  as  I  knew  it,  permission  being  neces 
sary,  I  thought,  because  my  knowledge  had  been 
acquired  through  confidential  relationships.  For 
example,  when  he  left  New  York  for  Africa,  in  March, 
1909, 1  went  with  him,  by  invitation,  to  the  steamer 
on  which  he  sailed.  Just  before  the  ship  pulled  out 
into  the  stream  I  asked  whether  there  were  not 
something  I  could  do  of  final  service.  "Yes,"  he 
said,  "I  wish  you  would  send  a  telegram  to  Taft." 
I  thereupon  sat  down  at  a  table  in  the  suite  of 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  61 

rooms  which  he  was  to  occupy  and  took  down  in 
long  hand,  at  his  dictation,  a  message — which  I 
later  despatched  myself  to  Mr.  Taft — a  cordial 
and  warm-hearted  telegram  bidding  his  old  friend, 
now  his  successor  in  the  White  House,  good-bye. 

I  later  learned  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  never  received 
any  reply  or  acknowledgment  of  his  telegram, 
and  that  the  first  communication  which  came  to 
him  from  Mr.  Taft  was  not  received  until  a  year 
and  three  months  later,  when  he  arrived  in  Lon 
don,  although  friends  and  acquaintances,  and  even 
strangers,  had  sent  him,  when  he  reached  Khartum, 
cablegrams  and  letters  of  congratulation  on  his 
success  in  passing  through  the  dangers  of  his  African 
journey.  This  letter  from  Mr.  Taft,  written  in 
his  own  hand,  was  received  by  Roosevelt  in  Lon 
don  in  June,  1910.  It  stated  the  political  difficul 
ties  into  which  the  Republican  party  had  been 
plunged  and  asked  Mr.  Roosevelt's  counsel  and 
help  in  extricating  the  party  from  those  difficulties. 

On  receiving  Mr.  Roosevelt's  permission  to  make 
public,  as  I  saw  fit,  such  facts  as  these  and  others 
I  wrote  in  January,  1912,  for  the  weekly  paper  in 
my  own  home  town — the  Cornwall,  New  York 
Local  Press — an  article  which  was  stated  by  the 
editor  to  give  "some  facts  concerning  the  personal 
relations  of  President  Taft  and  Mr.  Roosevelt 


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•a»n  a  rrcut  Pna. 


•  ••  l>ell*>etf  ikal  Mr    Moot'a  reoo- 

I  km  ai  a  rraat  rorparatloa  Uvjar 

labl   eo«an«-f   ale  eliTlkM          T»le 

w  lopoilallr   lr+TL-«  I*  rln  of  the 

n   <Ui    Mr    Hryao    >••    iikalr   to 

•  »•  w  aotUorporotloo  roBpeln. 

b  u  .nr  eoouch  BOW  to  k»i  ooth 

M*  fi-ol    ihM    protwur     aai     ki«t>- 

BlooM   (•fjtivcu  eouM  tare  Wee 


*n    foK    Ibu      Mr       Drru'a 
r».   at   alwtlo*    were   ahocttWr 
too  too*  for  their  coaton. 

wtoa  H  *«  laaJlr  4««l4a<  U«i 
loo  ncmlnaiteo  of  oMawr  Mr.  HickaB 
or  Mr.  Boot  *ao  o«t  ot  toa  o«ootle* 
tar  tw  ivjaMM  I  kin  ort  •tto*r. ' 

Mr.  Taf t  *M  Wft  M  tt*  •»"»  •<*»•• 
»lo>l  M7  •»»««  •»Tt.u>»  •'/  »TmU- 
ktto  ru«««l«.  h  ka.  W*a  »o» 


fro*  roam  of  too  tojtr-        «•  «*« 
•oa  o  oaoom4lr  MUoetl  r»pnutloa 

through  Mo    o4ataUtnUos    d     tb« 


„.«•.»  .~l  posoJor  focrourr  of 
War;  ho  »aa  Wttorot  to  MO«t*Uo4 
toUMMr  Mr  Koo  ' 


,  k.'ii  armvoAr  *IA  tt»: 
irooo 

Mi 


Wk»»  Mr.  HoMOYtlt  aui-ccaded  to 
(kc  pr>iM«acr  M  tbft  d-atb  o(  Mr 
MrKlolnr  b*  promlrcd  to  rarrr  out 
Mr  McKlnlay-a  aoll<|.i.  Tkla  bo 
414  birallr  I 'a  rci.ioed  la  kin  Cab'.. 
not  all  of  tha  nu>mb«ra  of  Mr.  Me 
Klakx'l  Cabinet,  tod  It  vu  Oat  no, 

ill  k*  •«»  «l«ctcj  la  laOl  mat  he  be- 
n*  10  ahap>-  nw  CoYorcm«nt  upon 
Ibf  portrlai.  la  conirt-duilncUoo  to 
tkoa«  of  Mr  M<KJ>ltr.  wblrb  b4Ya 
aov  fr-romu  blttorloillj  ouoclatod 
•  ita  bia  aonlalitratloo.  Mr.  Taft. 
eo  bii  olectloo,  oo  dovlit  »i>li«d  to 
firry  oo  Ik*  work  of  bla  prrdcceaeor. 
aito.  If  oat  pabllclr.  oftaa  privMatx 
uM  Ikal  H  vaa  bla  tealro  anil  loten- 
tloo  to  rruia  tkooo  CoMoet  col 
lra»M  of  Mr  MooMvaU  *ko 
roainbol»4  oo  Buck  lo  the  n- 
lloo  of  tbo  nepobllraji  party.  Bat 
tkla  lotiwiioa  OCMDO  araoualty  DOO- 
\tr»  durtna  the  viator  of  U«*.**. 
Only  oc»  oMBbor  of  too  ROM 
CoMnot  ve*  rotalMo:  ana  UM 
neiobor  vho  waa  Ur  RooooTelfa 
BO»I  Intimate  taaodaio  ooa  cm  whoa 
penae*  Bore  ihoo  on  any  oo» 
'  lo  laka  too  Oor- 
eoatral  of  ~bl( 


r«fe».  0* 
ttti.  Mr. 
UM  l.uri 


ao  effort  upon  the  Taft  odmlnlitnv 
tloo  uotkor  ot  Mr  Rooaavtlfa  Intl. 
male  coUtanea.  Mr  CIBor«  Plncbot. 
raa  prmctk 


ouMactlo*  sol    OUT     U>     too     m. 


"-      orfortly 


pmrtT  bat  k>  tha  ooulry.  Mr.  -— . 
voH  ootorod  Into  Uo  eui»al(m  tu 

Mr  Taffa  eloctlo*  with  hlo  thcroc- 
irrlatU  eelhnaloom  aa«  Urolooa  »1« 
or.  Hlo  aoooctoo.  bto  leUott.  kit 

w    o-Utej-  M  C0..1I 


TaR  prrti-r.-ad  to  "to  It  »toa.>  - 

nulcklr  found  that  Mr.  Taft  wltbed 
to  he  rolleYed  of  any  latlmato  Rooao- 
«elt  axaoclaUona.  an4  be  cboorfillir 
aad  promptly  ac<jul*«cne.  One  of  tb* 
roaaooa  that  he  went  to  Africa,  to 
bury  hlmeoff  lo  tbo  artlda  lor  noarlr 
wao  lo  rcBoro  any  poaalble 


£j$A 

fa.<j  •f^Ti  ^ 

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"Z#A»Hi£f*b~ 


3£^ 

*4m4Hr 


for 


IntarUdx  *<tk 
tntloe.     Faoplf 


Wr    T»ft> 


A  photographic  reproduction  of  a  por 
tion  of  the  "Local  Press"  article,  show- 


wanted  hl/n 

caBdldm  for  Mayor  W 
York  Mima  wanK-d  Mm  to  k-  Ip 
tfco  Kepubllcan  I'artr  ttom  ir.» 
H  wu  Ureat  , 
by  CaBnoBlsm  end  bad  urlir 
he*.  corroepuBd 


II.  referred 
«iavrlcnc«  of 
Admiral  Dowey  and  *rpr«i»«d  kl>  bo- 
Uef  Ibai.  Ilk*  Utwey.  a*  waa  bound 
>t«l»lon  uf  popular 


i  mjaalon  In 
political  lit*,  and  tbal  ota- 
era  aot  only  would,  but  Buxt.  takw 
ta*  e*at*r  of  tbe  Mag*  o.e  •Tea- 
lag  at  a  public  lecture  oa  tbo  euam 
brought  ui  bom.  from 
n  to  New  Tork.  when 


u  apn»«»<  u  m.y 

*B*  who  *<opl  to  Ihu.k.  that  Mr 
Rooaei.lt  retrained  from  Impoalog 
hlmaelf  upon  U*  eow  Prwldcat. 
tb*  blgbMt  MIH  eT  *«llcacy  The  «» 


of  Tru>t«-.   and  con 
dilK  or  correct 

or  modal*  wltb  hto  auccciner    li  one 
•f  U.  Boat  iBpleaitai  pr,raon>  in  the 


.It      k«a    n 

oulckly  tat  cordially  t 
tie  illghteit  wlih  aiprviM-d  ky  Mr 
Taft  for  hla  company  or  bla  rtew* 


Take  for  Iniunr*  OB*  Incident 


political 

vb.n  Wr  nooiirTelt  eraa  carrying  on 
bl>  alBoat  alBdo-baaded  fight  la  U« 
Biute  of  New  York  OM  itormr  day 
klr  AooHvtlt  Jumpod  Int*  a  motor 


r*u«d    tbe 
e  latenrtaw 
ita   Mr    Tan  at  New    llatea.  wb*B 


at  wae  aougbt  by  Mr   Roosevelt  for 
belp  In 

ill  eooteet  wltb  tb*  "OM  Quard"  of 
b*  8ute  Rtpukllcaa  Macbia.  Tk. 
bat.  Warned  them, 
not  from  Mr  HooMv.lt.  bat  from  . 
Tan  wbo  ka*v  all  tbe 
Tafi 


to  con*  la  order  that  be  (Mr 
Tuft)  might  g«  th*  beaeftt  of  Mr 
§51,355  adTlc«  regarding  Ibe  a*r- 


ion*  •put  u  U*  oaUoaal  affaire  ot 


an  *oli  again, 

to  me  and  .aid  -They  may 
treat  me  like  Dewey  but  I  UU  you 
en*  thing.  I  •hall  neither  weep  nor 
•hall  I  go  to  Europe  '" 

H*  arrived  la  New  Tork  about  tbe 
Btddle  of  ime.  1»1«,  and  began  at 


help.-     Tha   u 

and  vbM  Mr  Tan  called  on  Mr 
Eooa*T*it  M  Quickly  and  «ecerou«lj 
M  tk*>  call.  Tk*«*  faeU 
bare  UTer  been  »ubHab*d.  for.  ot 
OMT*)t  eouU  not  pub- 
Uak  them.  M  limply  bad  t«  |Tln  and 
bear  It.  w  be  baa  bora*  a  good  naay 
othw  oahMtlflabl*  crltlcUtua.  I  am 
*UUx  tMa  now  on  my  own  reipoo- 
ilbllliy  and  without  cooaullatlon  wltb 
Mr  Booaevelt  •implr  u  aa  example 
of  UK  mlilnU;rprel«tloD  wktcb  «r*nr 
nu  la  public  lite  bat  often  to  aader- 
•» 

LM  ••  now  tan  to  the  qauUoD  ol 
Mr  AooMTelf*  political  ambltlona 
Wnaa  be  emergcd-froa*  Ainca.  I  nut 
cam  M  Kbartum.  on*  tbomeud  mflet 
y»  tb«  Mil*.  In  ta*  ceaur  of  Africa. 


wit  la  full  awing.  Some  ot  tb*  yoang- 
er  leader,  lu  tb.  party  can*  10  elm 
,  ao4  ajked  him  to  go  Into  tbe  cam* 
palgo  He  declined,  Tb*y  aald  to 
Mm  that  II  wa*  uc/i  fair  to  dacUa*. 
that  the  {lepubllcan  Party  bad  beap- 
ed  boBor4upoa  him  and  that  now  In 
th.  time  ef  lu  tribulation  and  dang«r 
when  tbey  were  bonwtly  trylog  to 
vorge  It  of  aom*  of  th*  corrupt  *l» 
menu  b.  ought  DM  to  de~rt  them. 
-If  that  I*  the  way  you  feel  about  It." 
waa  bla  reply.  "I  will  take  bold  aad 
do  what  I  eaa,  but  I  wara  you  that 
there  la  hardly  a  ngatlac  chaae*  for 
•UCCM.  and  that  we  .hall  all  proba. 
kly  go  dowB  to  IguomlBlon  defati  to. 
•Mb*.  - 

It  waa  la  tbla  .pint  Uut  be  w«n 
late  tb*  campaign.  H.  vaa  electee) 
M  a  delegate  from  Naaaau  County  to 
tb*  Saratoga  Conveatloa.  waa  cbo*. 
ea  temporary  Chalrtnaa  partlclpat*4 
a  of  Mr  HUB. 


"Old  Ouard.     ta* 


ing  Roosevelt's   autographic  comments 
on  the  Presidential  Campaign  of  1908 


64    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

never  before  published."  The  issue  in  which  this 
paper  appeared  was  that  of  January  4,  1912.  I 
did  not  consult  Mr.  Roosevelt  while  writing  the 
article,  but  after  it  was  printed  I  cut  it  out,  pasted 
it  on  some  sheets  of  white  paper  with  wide  margins, 
and  showed  it  to  him.  These  margins  contain 
annotations,  in  his  own  hand,  written  with  an 
indelible  pencil. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  best  way  I  can  interpret 
Mr.  Roosevelt's  course  from  1908  to  1912  is  to 
quote  here  the  essential  portions  of  that  article 
giving  especially  his  own  notes  upon  my  statements. 
I  do  this  with  some  reluctance  because  Mr.  Taft 
and  Mr.  Roosevelt  resumed  friendly  relations 
before  the  latter's  death,  and  because  I  personally 
share  in  the  country's  affection  for  Mr.  Taft's 
genial  kindliness  of  spirit.  But  my  purpose,  in 
deed  my  duty  is  to  interpret  Mr.  Roosevelt,  and 
that  can  only  be  done  by  frankly  stating  the 
facts  connected  with  the  Progressive  campaign 
of  1912. 

THE  "LOCAL  PRESS"  ARTICLE  WITH  MR.  ROOSEVELT'S 
ANNOTATIONS 

In  order  to  understand  the  present  political  situation 
[January  1912]  with  regard  to  the  presidential  nomination 
next  summer  it  may  be  interesting  to  review  Mr.  Roosevelt's 
connection  with  National  politics  during  the  last  three  years. 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  65 

In  1908  Mr.  Roosevelt  declined  the  Republican  nomination 
which  he  could  very  easily  have  had.  In  fact,  the  party 
tried  everything  in  its  power  to  make  him  take  it.  But  he 
stood  by  his  public  statement,  made  in  1904,  that  he  would 
not  take  the  nomination  in  1908  even  if  it  were  offered  to  him. 
In  keeping  this  promise  it  is  quite  within  the  bounds  of  truth 
to  say  that  he  worked  harder  to  prevent  his  nomination  in 
1908  than  most  presidential  candidates  have  to  work  to  cap 
ture  a  nomination.  [This  statement  was  one  that  Roosevelt 
made  to  me  in  more  than  one  conversation.] 

Mr.  Roosevelt  having  eliminated  himself,  it  was  necessary 
for  the  Republican  Party  in  1908  to  find  a  candidate  who 
would  be  considered  by  the  country  as  capable  of  carrying 
out  the  uncompleted  programme  of  the  Roosevelt  Adminis 
tration.  The  chief  feature  of  this  programme  was  the  estab 
lishment  of  successful  principles  and  methods  by  which  the 
great  railway  and  industrial  corporations  of  the  country 
could  be  brought  under  government  control. 

The  three  prominent  figures  in  the  Republican  Party  at 
that  time,  next  to  Mr.  Roosevelt,  were  Governor  Hughes, 
Secretary  Root  and  Secretary  Taft.  Governor  Hughes  had 
not  then  won  the  great  national  confidence  which  he  after 
ward  enjoyed.  It  was  thought  by  the  political  managers, 
unjustly  no  doubt,  that  he  did  not  possess  those  qualities 
of  personal  magnetism,  the  lack  of  which  defeated  President 
Harrison  in  1892. 

Mr.  Root,  a  great  lawyer  and  a  great  Secretary  of  State, 
was  a  man  of  presidential  timber,  and  in  my  judgment  would 
have  made  a  great  President,  but  there  was  at  that  time 
throughout  the  country  such  a  feeling  of  antagonism  toward 
the  great  corporations  and  so-called  trusts,  that  it  was  be 
lieved  that  Mr.  Root's  reputation  as  a  great  corporation 
lawyer  might  endanger  his  election.  This  was  especially 
feared  in  view  of  the  fact  that  Mr.  Bryan  was  likely  to  make 
an  anti-corporation  campaign.  [Note  by  Mr.  Roosevelt: 
C(  I  found  that  the  westerners  would  not  stand  Root"] 


66   IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

It  is  easy  enough  now  to  look  back  and  feel  that  probably 
any  highminded  Republican  could  have  been  elected,  but 
those  who  remember  the  activities  of  the  campaign  of  1908 
will  also  remember  that  there  were  times  when  even  the 
Republican  managers  felt  that  Mr.  Bryan's  chances  of  elec 
tion  were  altogether  too  good  for  their  comfort. 

When  it  was  finally  decided  that  the  nomination  of  either 
Mr.  Hughes  or  Mr.  Root  was  out  of  the  question  for  the  rea 
sons  I  have  given  above,  Mr.  Taft  was  left  as  the  most  availa 
ble,  I  may  almost  say,  the  only  available  candidate.  It  has 
been  sometimes  said  that  his  candidacy  was  forced  upon  the 
party  by  Mr.  Roosevelt.  This  is  not  so.  He  was  the  free 
choice  of  the  party.  [Note  by  Mr.  Roosevelt:  "But  it  is 
so!  I  could  not  have  nominated  an  extreme  progressive  or  an 
extreme  conservative  but  I  could  by  a  turn  of  the  hand  have  thrown 
the  nomination  to  either  Taft  or  Hughes.  The  only  way  to 
prevent  my  own  nomination  was  for  me  actively  to  champion 
and  to  force  the  nomination  of  some  one  else;  I  chose  Taft  rather 
than  Hughes,  and  I  still  think  I  was  wise"]  He  had  won  a 
deservedly  national  reputation  through  his  administration 
of  the  Philippine  Islands;  he  had  been  a  successful  and  popular 
Secretary  of  War;  he  was  believed  to  understand  intimately 
Mr.  Roosevelt's  philosophy  and  principles  of  government  and 
to  be  in  sympathy  with  them;  he  was  a  warm  personal  friend 
of  Mr.  Roosevelt;  and  his  nomination  gave  satisfaction  not 
only  to  the  party  but  to  the  country.  Mr.  Roosevelt  entered 
into  the  campaign  for  Mr.  Taft's  election  with  his  character 
istic  enthusiasm  and  tireless  vigour.  His  speeches,  his  letters, 
his  knowledge  of  the  conditions  and  his  political  experience 
contributed  so  largely  to  the  successful  result  of  the  election 
that  his  critics  have  said  that  he  alone  nominated  and  elected 
Mr.  Taft. 

Unfortunately,  some  of  Mr.  Taft's  advisers  took  this  mis 
taken  view  of  the  case  and,  between  the  date  of  his  election 
and  his  inauguration  in  1909,  urged  him  to  separate  himself 
so  thoroughly  from  any  Roosevelt  associations  that  his  ad- 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  67 

ministration  could  create  its  own  policies  and  that  thus  he 
might  be  renominated  and  reflected  in  1912  on  his  own  in 
dividual  merits  "without  any  taint  of  Rooseveltism." 

When  Mr.  Roosevelt  succeeded  to  the  presidency  on  the 
death  of  Mr.  McKinley  he  promised  to  carry  out  Mr.  Mc- 
Kinley's  policies.  This  he  did  loyally.  He  retained  in 
his  Cabinet  all  of  the  members  of  Mr.  McKinley 's  Cabinet 
and  it  was  not  until  he  was  elected  in  1904  that  he  began  to 
shape  the  government  upon  the  policies,  in  centra-distinction 
to  those  of  Mr.  McKinley,  which  have  now  become  historic 
ally  associated  with  his  administration.  [Note  by  Mr. 
Roosevelt:  "No;  the  mere  force  of  events  had  made  me  strike 
absolutely  my  own  note  by  October  1902,  when  I  settled  the  coal 
strike  and  started  the  trust  control  campaign.  In  1903  I  took 
Panama."] 

Mr.  Taft  on  his  election  no  doubt  wished  to  carry  on  the 
work  of  his  predecessor,  and,  if  not  publicly,  often  privately 
said  that  it  was  his  desire  and  intention  to  retain  those  Cabi 
net  colleagues  of  Mr.  Roosevelt  who  had  contributed  so  much 
to  the  re-creation  of  the  Republican  Party.  [Note  by  Mr. 
Roosevelt:  "He  told  me  so,  and  authorized  me  to  tell  the  Cabi 
net,  specifically  Garfield,  Straus  and  Luke  Wright."]  But  this 
intention  became  gradually  modified  during  the  winter  of 
1908-09.  Only  one  member  of  the  Roosevelt  Cabinet  was 
retained,  and  the  one  member  who  was  Mr.  Roosevelt's  most 
intimate  associate  and  on  whom  he  depended  more  than  on 
any  one  else  in  his  struggle  to  take  the  government  out  of  the 
control  of  "big  business,"  the  member  of  all  others  whom  he 
would  have  preferred  to  see  retained,  was  not  retained.  I 
refer,  of  course  to  Mr.  James  Garfield,  Mr.  Roosevelt's  Sec 
retary  of  the  Interior. 

In  the  Ballinger  controversy,  which  has  had  so  disastrous 
an  effect  upon  the  Taft  Administration,  another  of  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  intimate  colleagues,  Mr.  Gifford  Pinchot,  was 
practically  dismissed.  It  was  perfectly  manifest  from  these 
and  many  other  occurrences,  of  which  these  are  only  exam- 


68    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

pies,  that  Mr.  Taft  preferred  to  "go  it  alone."  No  one  has 
ever  accused  Mr.  Roosevelt  of  being  dull  in  his  perceptions. 
He  quickly  found  that  Mr.  Taft  wished  to  be  relieved  of  any 
intimate  Roosevelt  associations,  and  he  cheerfully  and 
promptly  acquiesced.  One  of  the  reasons  why  he  went  to 
Africa,  to  bury  himself  in  the  wilds  for  nearly  a  year,  was  to 
remove  any  possible  ground  for  the  charge  that  he  was  inter 
fering  with  Mr.  Taft's  administration.  [Mr.  Roosevelt  often 
told  me  that  this  was  one  of  his  motives  for  his  African  trip.] 

People  have  said  to  me  sometimes,  "Why  is  it  that  Mr. 
Roosevelt,  who  was  such  an  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Taft's, 
ceased  to  maintain  that  intimacy  after  Mr.  Taft  got  into  the 
White  House?"  I  should  suppose  it  would  be  apparent  to 
any  one  who  stops  to  think  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  refrained  from 
imposing  himself  upon  the  new  President,  from  the  highest 
sense  of  delicacy.  The  ex- President  of  a  college  who  remains 
on  the  Board  of  Trustees,  and  constantly  attempts  to  advise 
or  correct  or  meddle  with  his  successor  is  one  of  the  most  un 
pleasant  persons  in  the  world. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  has  never  failed  to  respond  quickly  and 
cordially  to  the  slightest  wish  expressed  by  Mr.  Taft  for  his 
company  or  his  advice.  Take  for  instance  one  incident 
in  the  political  campaign  of  the  autumn  of  1910  when  Mr. 
Roosevelt  was  carrying  on  his  almost  single-handed  fight  in 
the  State  of  New  York.  One  stormy  day  Mr.  Roosevelt 
jumped  into  a  motor  boat  at  Oyster  Bay,  crossed  Long  Island 
Sound,  and  had  a  private  interview  with  Mr.  Taft  at  New 
Haven,  when  the  latter  was  attending  a  meeting  of  the  Cor 
poration  of  Yale  University.  The  following  day  the  news 
papers  announced — very  unfortunately  with  the  apparent 
acquiescence  of  those  nearest  to  Mr.  Taft — [as  a  matter  of 
fact  the  announcement  was  made  in  an  official  despatch  from 
the  presidential  train  on  which  Mr.  Taft  was  travelling]  that 
the  meeting  was  sought  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  for  the  purpose  of 
getting  some  help  in  his  contest  with  the  "Old  Guard"  of 
the  New  York  State  Republican  Machine.  The  facts  are — 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  69 

and  I  have  learned  them  not  from  Mr.  Roosevelt  but  from  a 
friend  of  Mr.  Taft's  who  knew  all  the  circumstances,  that 
Mr.  Taft  sent  word  to  Mr.  Roosevelt  asking  Roosevelt  to 
come  in  order  that  he,  Mr.  Taft,  might  get  the  benefits  of 
Mr.  Roosevelt's  advice  regarding  the  serious  split  in  the  na 
tional  affairs  of  the  Republican  Party,  which  resulted  from 
the  fight  of  the  "progressives"  in  Congress  against  so- 
called  "Cannonism."  The  newspapers,  not  knowing  the 
facts,  said,  "Aha!  This  is  just  like  Roosevelt.  He  has 
neglected  Mr.  Taft  but  the  moment  he  gets  into  trouble  he 
runs  to  him  for  help!" 

The  exact  contrary  is  true  and  when  Mr.  Taft  called  on  Mr. 
Roosevelt  he  quickly  and  generously  responded  to  the  call. 

These  facts  have  never  been  published,  for,  of  course,  Mr. 
Roosevelt  could  not  publish  them;  he  simply  had  to  grin  and 
bear  it,  as  he  has  borne  many  other  unjustifiable  criticisms. 
I  am  stating  them  now  on  my  own  responsibility  without 
consultation  with  Mr.  Roosevelt,  as  an  example  of  the  mis 
interpretation  which  every  man  in  public  life  has  often  to 
undergo.  [Note  by  Mr.  Roosevelt:  "My  -personal  feeling 
about  Taft's  relations  with  me  never  influenced  by  one  iota  my 
public  course;  it  took  18  months  to  convince  me  that  he  was  a 
first-class  lieutenant^  but  no  leader,  with  no  real  conviction  on  or 
appreciation  of  the  magnitude  of  the  really  vital  problems  before 
this  country."] 


He  [Mr.  Roosevelt]  arrived  in  New  York  about  the  middle 
of  June,  1910,  and  began  at  once  to  devote  himself  to  the 
editorial  work  on  the  Outlook.  The  gubernatorial  cam 
paign  of  this  state  was  in  full  swing.  Some  of  the  younger 
leaders  in  the  party  came  to  him  and  asked  him  to  go  into  the 
campaign.  He  declined.  They  said  to  him  that  it  was  not 
fair  to  decline;  that  the  Republican  Party  had  heaped  honours 
upon  him  and  that  now  in  the  time  of  its  tribulation  and 


70    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

danger  when  they  were  honestly  trying  to  purge  it  of  some 
of  the  corrupt  elements  he  ought  not  to  desert  them.  "If 
that  is  the  way  you  feel  about  it,"  was  his  reply,  "I  will  take 
hold  and  do  what  I  can,  but  I  warn  you  that  there  is  hardly  a 
fighting  chance  for  success  and  that  we  shall  all  probably  go 
down  to  ignominious  defeat  together."  [Note  by  Mr.  Roose 
velt:  "Hughes  in  especial  asked  me."] 


si 


The  result  of  the  campaign  is  a  matter  of  record.  Mr. 
Roosevelt  was  defeated.  For  a  time  he  suffered  from  a  most 
pronounced  reversal  of  popularity  and  his  opponents  and  his 
critics  rejoiced  in  their  openly  expressed  belief  that  he  was 
permanently  down  and  out.  He  made  no  complaint  but 
went  on  with  his  editorial  work,  discussing  questions  of  poli 
tics  and  public  importance  with  zest  and  without  repining. 
As  the  year  1911  came  into  its  last  quarter,  the  people  of  the 
State,  even  some  of  the  most  enthusiastic  supporters  of 
Governor  Dix,  began  to  perceive  that  what  Mr.  Roosevelt 
had  said  in  his  public  speeches  during  the  campaign  was  true. 
The  defeat  of  Mr.  Stimson  meant  the  saddling  of  Tammany 
upon  the  whole  political  machinery  of  the  State. 


What  Mr.  Roosevelt  does  or  says  will  be  interpreted  by 
some  critics  to  his  disadvantage.  In  the  building  where  the 
Outlook  has  its  offices  there  are  two  elevators,  one  in  the  main 
hall  and  one  in  the  side  hall.  Mr.  Roosevelt  once  said  with 
a  laugh  during  the  campaign  of  1910  when  the  Outlook  office 
was  crowded  with  people  who  came  to  consult  him:  "If  I  go 
down  in  the  front  elevator,  my  critics  call  it  ostentation;  if 
I  go  down  in  the  side  elevator,  they  call  it  secretiveness!" 


If  Mr.  Roosevelt  is  ever  elected  President  again  it  will  not 
be  because  he  seeks  or  wants  the  office;  it  will  be  because  the 


©  Underwood  &  Underwood 

The  Inaugural  Address  of  1904 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  71 

country  wants  him  in  the  office  to  perform  a  certain  job.  He 
has  had  all  the  political  and  official  honours  that  any  normal 
man  can  possibly  want.  He  accepted  a  nomination  for  the 
Vice-Presidency  in  1900  when  such  a  nomination  was  thought 
to  be  equivalent  to  political  oblivion,  and  although  he  wanted 
to  run  again  for  governor  of  the  State  of  New  York  in  order 
to  complete  some  important  work  in  that  office.  But  his 
friends  told  him  that  it  was  his  duty  to  sacrifice  himself  in 
order  to  strengthen  Mr.  McKinley's  nomination  and  the 
campaign  for  sound  money  and  the  financial  honour  of  the 
Nation.  He  accepted  the  nomination  on  that  ground,  al 
though  at  the  time  both  his  friends  and  his  enemies  said  it 
would  mean  the  end  of  his  political  career.  But  instead  of 
plunging  into  oblivion  it  brought  to  him  an  election  to  the 
Presidency  in  1904  by  one  of  the  largest  popular  and  electoral 
majorities  ever  received  by  an  American  President.  This 
is  what  his  critics  call  "Roosevelt  luck." 

In  1908  he  not  only  declined,  but  put  a  stop  to  his  nomina 
tion  at  a  time  when  such  a  nomination  was  equivalent  to  an 
election.  He  has  a  European  reputation  as  a  statesman 
which  has  never  been  surpassed  by  any  other  American  in 
political  life  and  he  appears  to-day  to  be  as  popular  among 
his  own  countrymen  as  he  ever  was.  What  possible  incentive 
can  there  be  to  a  man  with  such  a  record  of  achievements  and 
honours  to  enter  the  arduous,  disagreeable  and  often  disas 
trous  contests  into  which  the  candidate  who  struggles  for  the 
Presidency  is  inevitably  plunged. 

To  be  understood  properly  the  notes  which 
Roosevelt  made  upon  the  document  here  repro 
duced  need  some  interpretation.  He  wrote  them 
briefly  and  categorically  because  he  was  aware  that 
I  would  understand  them  without  amplification. 

When  he  says:  "I  could  have  nominated  Hughes 


72    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

more  easily  than  Taft"  or:  -"I  could  not  have 
nominated  an  extreme  Progressive  or  an  extreme 
Conservative/'  he  means,  of  course,  not  that  he 
was  acting  as  a  dictator  but  as  the  acknowledged 
leader  of  his  party  to  whom  not  only  the  party 
managers  but  the  delegates  themselves  came  for 
advice.  What  they  wanted  was  that  he  should 
tell  them  whom  they  should  vote  for  in  the  con 
vention  if  not  for  him.  It  was  his  moral  and 
personal  leadership  and  not  his  dictatorial  and 
official  power  that  made  him  the  arbiter  of  the 
nomination. 

The  same  interpretation  is  to  be  given  to  his 
phrase:  "In  1903  I  took  Panama."  Of  course  he 
could  not  have  taken  it  in  the  sense  in  which  Philip 
II  of  Spain  took  the  free  cities  of  the  Netherlands. 
The  meaning  of  the  phrase  will  be  more  clear  if  it  is 
paraphrased  in  this  way:  "In  1903  /  took  action, 
guided  almost  solely  by  my  own  judgment  of  what 
was  wise  and  proper,  that  resulted  in  the  building  of 
the  Panama  Canal/'  The  fact  that  the  inhabi 
tants  and  the  government  of  Panama  itself  were 
the  most  enthusiastic  supporters  and  approvers  of 
this  action  is  proof  that  Roosevelt  did  not  use  the 
verb  "to  take"  in  the  sense  of  seizure  or  conquest. 

What  he  says  about  Mr.  Taft  being  "a  first-class 
lieutenant  but  no  leader,  with  no  real  convictions 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  73 

on  or  appreciation  of  the  magnitude  of  the  really 
vital  problems  before  the  country"  is  perhaps  suffi 
ciently  explained  later  in  this  article.  He  did  not 
mean  that  Mr.  Taft  had  no  convictions  of  any  kind. 
On  the  contrary,  I  am  convinced  that  he  believed 
Mr.  Taft's  convictions  on  legal  and  judicial  ques 
tions  were  of  a  very  high  order.  In  a  later  chapter 
of  the  book  from  which  this  article  is  taken  I  quote 
in  full  Roosevelt's  own  statement  of  the  reasons 
that  led  him  to  become  a  Progressive.  From  the 
time  of  his  governorship  of  the  State  of  New  York 
he  had  been  slowly  but  steadily  coming  to  the  con 
viction  that  there  needed  to  be  a  thorough-going 
reform  of  the  relations  of  government  to  industry 
both  as  regards  capital  and  as  regards  labour.  He 
felt  that  the  country  was  approaching  a  crisis  in  its 
social  and  industrial  conditions,  a  feeling  that  the 
outcome  of  the  European  war  has  more  than  con 
firmed.  His  belief  was  that  Mr.  Taft  did  not  share 
this  conviction  and  did  not  appreciate  the  magni 
tude  and  imminence  of  the  crisis.  The  cleavage 

between  the  two  men  was  due  not  to  friction  in 

I 

their  personal  relations  but  to  a  fundamental  differ 
ence  in  their  point  of  view.  The  personal  friction 
was  not  the  cause  but  the  result  of  the  difference  in 
their  political  philosophies.  I  hope  it  is  not  pre 
sumptuous  in  me  to  say  that  I  think  Mr.  Taft's  at- 


74    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

titude  toward  these  social  and  human  problems  has 
changed  since  1912,  and  that  he  and  Roosevelt 
found  themselves  much  more  in  agreement  during 
the  last  year  of  the  European  war.  Mr.  Taft's 
vigorous  and  broadminded  leadership  in  support 
of  the  plan  for  a  League  of  Nations  against  the 
bitter  opposition  of  powerful  members  of  his  own 
party  discloses  those  qualities  of  statesmanship  in 
matters  of  national  and  international  procedure 
which  originally  drew  him  and  Roosevelt  together 
during  the  years  of  the  latter's  Presidency. 

The  statement  that  "Hughes  in  especial  asked 
me"  refers  to  these  facts:  Mr.  Hughes  at  the  Har 
vard  Commencement  of  1910  added  his  urgency 
to  that  of  the  younger  Republicans  who  were  beg 
ging  Roosevelt  to  go  into  the  state  campaign  of 
that  year.  Mr.  Hughes  put  this  request  on  the 
ground  that  the  Direct  Primary  cause  which  he 
had  inaugurated  needed  Roosevelt's  backing. 
Roosevelt  assented  and  went  into  the  fight,  but 
somewhat  to  his  chagrin  Mr.  Hughes  then  failed 
to  give  him  any  active  support  in  the  contest. 

As  the  Local  Press  article  was  commented  upon 
by  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  in  that  way  received  the 
stamp  of  his  personal  approval  it  may  be  taken 
as  a  fair  indication  of  his  state  of  mind  as  to  poli 
tics  at  the  opening  of  the  campaign  of  1912.  The 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  75 

dissatisfaction  of  the  Liberals  or  "Progressives" 
in  the  Republican  party  with  the  course  of  Mr. 
Taft's  administration  had  steadily  grown  during 
1911.  Early  in  1912  President  Taft  made  a  speech 
at  Cleveland  in  which  he  reviewed  and  defended 
his  Administration.  The  Outlook  made  the  follow 
ing  comment  on  that  speech,  and  as  Mr.  Roosevelt 
was  then  a  member  of  the  editorial  staff  I  know 
that  its  comment  was  not  inharmonious  with  his 
own  view. 

Why  is  it  that  there  should  be  wide-spread  popular  dis 
content  with  the  Administration,  not  only  on  the  part  of  the 
President's  political  opponents,  but  also  within  the  ranks  of 
the  President's  own  party? 

In  the  first  place,  the  President  [Mr.  Taft]  has  allowed  him 
self  to  become  identified  in  the  public  mind  with  those  elements 
in  his  party  which  have  been  frankly  opposed  to  progress.  It 
was  not,  for  example,  merely  his  defense  of  the  Payne-Aldrich 
Tariff  Act,  as  made  in  his  Winona  speech,  that  set  the  Pro 
gressive  element  in  his  own  party  to  questioning  his  attitude; 
it  was  even  more  the  evidence  that  in  the  conferences  over 
the  tariff  he  seemed  to  find  most  congenial  to  him  those  lead 
ers  in  the  party  who  had  been  most  opposed  to  real  tariff  re 
form.  Another  illustration  of  this  point  was  the  famous 
Norton  letter,  in  which  it  was  admitted  that  the  President 
had  used  Federal  patronage  against  the  Progressives  in  Con 
gress.  This  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  Progressive  element 
in  the  party  has  been  confirmed  by  many  expressions  of  the 
President  himself.  A  notable  illustration  occurs  in  the  clos 
ing  sentence  of  his  Cleveland  speech: 

"On  this,  the  natal  day  of  William  McKinley,  let  us 

take  new  vows  in  behalf  of  the  Grand  Old  Party,  standing 


76    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

by  the  Constitution,  standing  by  the  rights  of  liberty  and 
property  of  the  individual,  and  willing  to  face  defeat  many 
times  in  behalf  of  the  cause  of  sound  Constitutional  gov 
ernment." 

This  might  have  been  said  in  exactly  these  words  by  Mr. 
Cannon  or  any  of  the  so-called  standpatters  who  believe  that 
the  prime  function  of  party  government  is  to  promote  ma 
terial  prosperity  or  mere  money-making.  In  such  a  sen 
tence  there  is  no  hint  of  that  feeling  for  which  the  Progressive 
element  of  Mr.  Taft's  party  stands,  that  feeling  which  is 
growing  more  and  more  throughout  the  country — that  in  the 
end  when  human  rights  clash  with  property  rights,  human 
rights  should  prevail.  In  this  sentence  there  is  no  hint  of 
really  sympathetic  understanding  of  that  movement  which 
has  changed  the  complexion  of  Congress  and  which  has  put 
the  reactionary  element  in  both  parties  on  the  defensive. 

The  Progressive  element,  for  the  reasons  thus  set 
forth,  was  busily  seeking  for  a  candidate  represent 
ing  the  Liberal  wing  of  the  Republican  party  who 
could  be  put  in  nomination  against  Mr.  Taft  at  the 
National  Republican  Convention  at  Chicago  in 
June.  The  Liberal  leaders  were  in  constant  con 
sultation  with  Mr.  Roosevelt,  and  his  office  was 
daily  crowded  with  people.  It  was  a  veritable 
political  headquarters.  When  urged  to  accept  the 
titular  leadership  of  the  Liberal  wing  he  steadily 
declined,  and  more  than  once  I  heard  him  say  dur 
ing  this  period  that,  while  he  was  glad  to  help  in  any 
way  he  could,  Senator  La  Follette  of  Wisconsin  was 
the  man  on  whom  the  Liberals  must  probably  de- 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  77 

pend.  This  was  not  because  of  his  personal  admira 
tion  for  Senator  La  Follette,  about  whom  there  was 
much  which  was  not  sympathetic  to  Roosevelt, 
but  because  he  thought  that  justice  to  Senator  La 
Follette  required  recognition  of  the  sacrifices  he 
had  made  in  fighting  the  champions  of  reaction, 
for  the  Senator  had  devoted  himself  for  many  years 
with  unflagging  energy  to  the  cause  of  popular 
government  as  opposed  to  special  privilege. 

But  in  February,  1912,  Senator  La  Follette 
collapsed  in  an  aggravated  attack  of  nervous 
prostration.  This  collapse  came  in  a  dramatic 
and  tragic  fashion  while  he  was  making  a  speech 
at  the  annual  dinner  of  the  Periodical  Publishers' 
Association  in  Philadelphia,  a  speech  which  I 
happened  to  hear  and  which  culminated  in  one 
of  the  most  painful  public  spectacles  I  have  ever 
witnessed.  As  a  result  of  that  unfortunate  episode, 
during  which  for  two  hours  the  Senator  rambled  on, 
sometimes  violently,  sometimes  incoherently,  his 
friends  and  political  managers  announced  his  with 
drawal  as  a  presidential  candidate. 

The  pressure  upon  Mr.  Roosevelt  then  became 
greater  than  ever.  He  finally  said  that  if  there 
was  any  evidence  that  a  considerable  body  of  the 
Republican  party  wanted  him  to  be  a  candidate 
he  would  agree  to  follow  their  wishes.  Whereupon 


78    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

seven  Republican  governors,  of  the  states  of  West 
Virginia,  Nebraska,  New  Hampshire,  Wyoming, 
Michigan,  Kansas,  and  Missouri,  addressed  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Roosevelt  urging  him  to  be  a  candidate  and 
saying: 

We  feel  that  you  will  be  unresponsive  to  a  plain  public 
duty  if  you  decline  to  accept  the  nomination  coming  as  the 
voluntary  expression  of  the  wishes  of  a  majority  of  the  Re 
publican  voters  of  the  United  States  through  the  action  of 
their  delegates  in  the  next  National  Convention. 

Even  before  this  letter  was  sent  to  Mr.  Roose 
velt  steps  had  been  taken  in  various  parts  of  the 
country  to  elect  Roosevelt  delegates  to  the  Na 
tional  Convention.  Mr.  Roosevelt  believed  that 
this  letter  of  the  seven  governors  was  voicing  a 
common  popular  demand  and  he  replied,  agreeing 
to  become  a  candidate.  In  his  letter  he  said : 

One  of  the  chief  principles  for  which  I  have  stood  and  for 
which  I  now  stand  and  which  I  have  always  endeavoured 
and  always  shall  endeavour  to  reduce  to  action,  is  the  genuine 
rule  of  the  people;  and,  therefore,  I  hope  that  so  far  as  possi 
ble  the  people  may  be  given  the  chance,  through  direct 
primaries,  to  express  their  preference  as  to  who  shall  be  the 
nominee  of  the  Republican  Presidential  Convention. 

On  the  publication  of  the  letter  of  the  seven 
governors  and  Roosevelt's  reply  the  campaign 
began  with  a  full  swing.  Indeed,  in  so  far  as  Mr. 


Underwood  &  Underwood 


Theodore  Roosevelt  addressing  a  street  audience  with  char 
acteristic  gesture  and  emphasis 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  79 

Roosevelt's  political  principles  and  policies  were 
concerned,  it  had  begun  some  weeks  before,  for 
early  in  February  he  had  been  invited  to  address 
the  Constitutional  Convention  in  Columbus,  the 
capital  city  of  Ohio,  and  had  there  stated  certain 
principles  which  he  called  "A  Charter  of  Democ 
racy."  He  announced  his  belief  in  the  short  ballot ; 
in  direct  nominations  by  the  people  including  pref 
erential  primaries  for  the  election  of  delegates  to 
the  national  nominating  conventions;  in  the  elec 
tion  of  United  States  senators  by  direct  vote;  in 
the  initiative  and  referendum  "which  should  be 
used  not  to  destroy  representative  government, 
but  to  correct  it  whenever  it  becomes  misrepresen- 
tative  " ;  and  finally  he  promulgated  a  theory  which, 
because  it  was  misinterpreted  and  misunderstood, 
raised  a  tremendous  storm  in  the  campaign — the 
theory  of  "The  Recall  of  Judicial  Decisions/' 
Briefly,  he  asserted  that  under  this  doctrine  the 
voters  at  the  ballot  box  should  have  an  opportunity 
of  saying  whether  a  law  nullified  by  the  courts  as 
contrary  to  the  Constitution  was  in  fact  uncon 
stitutional  or  not.  On  reading  the  speech  it  is 
apparent  he  had  in  mind  the  application  of  this 
principle  or  doctrine  only  to  the  individual  states 
with  regard  to  laws  affecting  social  justice  and  that 
he  doubted  whether  it  could  be  adopted  with  re- 


8o    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

gard  to  decisions  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court. 

Not  long  after  this  address,  which  was  popularly 
known  throughout  the  campaign  as  the  Columbus 
speech,  he  made  another  at  Carnegie  Hall  in  the 
City  of  New  York.  It  was  delivered  on  March 
20,  1912,  under  the  auspices  of  The  Civic  Forum, 
a  non-partisan  organization.  The  Carnegie  Hall 
speech  was  notable  for  two  or  three  things.  In  it 
he  took  issue  with  Mr.  Taft  for  the  first  time  in 
public.  He  said: 

Mr.  Taft's  position  is  the  position  that  has  been  held  from 
the  beginning  of  our  government,  although  not  always  so 
openly  held,  by  a  large  number  of  the  reputable  and  honour 
able  men  who,  down  at  bottom,  distrust  popular  government, 
and,  when  they  must  accept  it,  accept  it  with  reluctance,  and 
hedge  it  round  with  every  species  of  restriction  and  check  and 
balance,  so  as  to  make  the  power  of  the  people  as  limited  and 
as  ineffective  as  possible.  Mr.  Taft  fairly  defines  the  issue 
when  he  says  that  our  government  is  and  should  be  a  govern 
ment  of  all  the  people  by  a  representative  part  of  the  people. 
This  is  an  excellent  and  moderate  description  of  an  oligarchy. 
It  defines  our  government  as  a  government  of  all  of  the  people 
by  a  few  of  the  people.  Mr.  Taft,  in  his  able  speech,  has 
made  what  is  probably  the  best  possible  presentation  of  the 
case  for  those  who  feel  in  this  manner. 

He  reaffirmed  the  creed  which  he  had  uttered 
before  the  Ohio  Constitutional  Convention  saying: 

I  stand  on  the  Columbus  speech.  The  principles  there 
asserted  are  not  new,  but  I  believe  that  they  are  necessary 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  81 

to  the  maintenance  of  free,  democratic  government.  The  part 
of  my  speech  in  which  I  advocated  the  right  of  the  people  to 
be  the  final  arbiters  of  what  is  due  process  of  law  in  the  case  of 
statutes  enacted  for  the  general  welfare  will  ultimately,  I  am 
confident,  be  recognized  as  giving  strength  and  support  to 
the  courts  instead  of  being  revolutionary  and  subversive. 

The  Carnegie  Hall  speech  contains  a  good  ex 
ample  of  Roosevelt's  enjoyment  in  occasionally 
treating  his  own  foibles  humorously,  in  poking  fun 
at  himself,  so  to  speak.//  William  Draper  Lewis, 
Dean  of  the  Law  School  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  who  afterward  became  intimately 
associated  with  Roosevelt  in  the  Progressive 
campaign,  had,  in  a  newspaper  article,  referred  to 
the  recall  of  judicial  decisions  with  approval  on  the 
whole.  He  had  commended  the  plan  as  being 
not  only  in  favour  of  popular  rights  but  as  entirely 
harmonious  with  the  best-established  legal  prin 
ciples,  adding,  however: 

I  think  it  unfortunate  that  it  should  have  been  proposed 
by  Colonel  Roosevelt.  He  is  a  man  of  such  marked  charac 
teristics  and  his  place  in  the  political  world  is  such  that  he 
arouses  intense  enthusiasms  on  the  one  hand  and  intense 
animosities  on  the  other.  Because  of  this,  the  great  idea 
which  he  has  propounded  is  bound  to  be  beclouded  and  its 
adoption  to  be  delayed.  It  is  a  pity  that  anything  so  import 
ant  should  be  confounded  with  any  man's  personality. 

During  his  speech  Roosevelt  read  Dean  Lewis's 
entire  critique  of  the  plan  and  said  with  that  char- 


82   IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

acteristic  intonation  of  voice  which  indicated  his 
sense  of  humour: 

As  regards  the  Dean's  last  paragraph  I  can  only  say  that 
I  wish  somebody  else  whose  suggestions  would  arouse  less 
antagonism  had  proposed  it;  but  nobody  else  did  propose  it 
and  so  I  had  to.  I  am  not  leading  this  fight  as  a  matter  of 
aesthetic  pleasure.  I  am  leading  because  somebody  must 
lead,  or  else  the  fight  would  not  be  made  at  all. 

The  Carnegie  Hall  speech  contained  one  of  the 
most  eloquent  and  moving  passages  in  the  whole 
range  of  Roosevelt's  public  utterances.  Toward 
the  conclusion  of  the  speech  he  uttered  these 
words: 

Friends,  our  task  as  Americans  is  to  strive  for  social  and 
industrial  justice,  achieved  through  the  genuine  rule  of  the 
people.  This  is  our  end,  our  purpose.  The  methods  for 
achieving  the  end  are  merely  expedients,  to  be  finally  ac 
cepted  or  rejected  according  as  actual  experience  shows  that 
they  work  well  or  ill.  But  in  our  hearts  we  must  have  this 
lofty  purpose,  and  we  must  strive  for  it  in  all  earnestness 
and  sincerity,  or  our  work  will  come  to  nothing.  In  order 
to  succeed  we  need  leaders  of  inspired  idealism,  leaders  to 
whom  are  granted  great  visions,  who  dream  greatly  and  strive 
to  make  their  dreams  come  true;  who  can  kindle  the  people 
with  the  fire  from  their  own  burning  souls.  The  leader  for 
the  time  being,  whoever  he  may  be,  is  but  an  instrument, 
to  be  used  until  broken  and  then  to  be  cast  aside;  and  if  he 
is  worth  his  salt  he  will  care  no  more  when  he  is  broken  than 
a  soldier  cares  when  he  is  sent  where  his  life  is  forfeit  in 
order  that  the  victory  may  be  won.  In  the  long  fight  for 
righteousness  the  watchword  for  all  of  us  is  "Spend  and  be 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  83 

spent/'  It  is  of  little  matter  whether  any  one  man  fails  or 
succeeds;  but  the  cause  shall  not  fail,  for  it  is  the  cause  of 
mankind. 

The  audience,  recognizing  the  personal  implica 
tion  of  these  words,  responded  by  instinctively 
rising  to  their  feet  and  bursting  into  a  storm 
of  applause.  I  happened  to  be  sitting  in  a  box 
and  could  look  down  upon  the  people  who  filled 
every  available  seat  in  the  body  of  the  hall.  I 
noticed  William  Barnes  of  Albany,  the  well-known 
leader  of  the  "Old  Guard"  faction  in  the  Repub 
lican  party,  a  typical  reactionary,  who  had  fought 
Roosevelt  in  the  gubernatorial  campaign  of  1910 
and  who  was  later  to  engage  in  a  bitter  libel  suit 
with  him  as  a  result  of  their  political  antagonisms. 
But  Barnes  rose  and  applauded  with  the  rest.  A 
friend  told  me  that  when  Barnes  later  in  the  evening 
at  one  of  the  clubs  was  twitted  for  this  public  trib 
ute  to  his  arch-enemy  he  replied :"  Why,  I  was  on 
my  feet  before  I  knew  it.  Roosevelt,  confound 
him,  has  a  kind  of  magnetism  that  you  cannot 
resist  when  you  are  in  his  presence!"^/ 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  go  into  the  historical 
details  of  the  Progressive  campaign.  Roosevelt 
was  the  popular  candidate  for  the  Republican  nomi 
nation.  He  was  seeking  not  merely  the  nomina 
tion,  but  to  establish  the  free  primary  system  by 


84    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

which  the  people  at  large  could  exercise  their  choice 
directly  in  the  National  conventions.  At  the 
Republican  Convention  in  Chicago  delegates  who 
were  elected  to  vote  for  his  nomination  were  re 
fused  credentials  and  delegates  whom  he  and  his 
friends  believed  did  not  represent  popular  will  but 
who  were  pledged  to  vote  for  Mr.  Taft  were  seated. 
Roosevelt  felt  that  this  was  not  merely  an  injus 
tice  to  himself  but  that  it  was  a  corrupt  and  brazen 
violation  of  popular  rights.  How  close  he  came  to 
the  nomination  was  related  as  follows  by  one  of 
my  associates  on  the  staff  of  the  Outlook,  Mr. 
Travers  Carman,  who  accompanied  Roosevelt 
to  the  Republican  Convention  as  a  personal  friend 
and  aide. 

It  was  known  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  lacked  twenty-eight 
delegates  (my  recollection  is  that  this  was  the  number)  to 
secure  the  nomination.  The  most  memorable  conference  I 
ever  attended  (and  I  was  there  merely  in  the  capacity  of 
"doorman")  was  held  that  night  at  the  Colonel's  headquar 
ters  on  the  second  floor  of  the  Congress  Hotel,  and  attended 
only  by  those  most  concerned  in  the  success  of  Mr.  Roose 
velt's  campaign.  The  entire  situation  was  carefully  dis 
cussed,  analyzed,  and  dissected.  By  questionable  means  the 
Colonel  would  not,  and  by  fair  means  apparently  he  could  not, 
secure  the  nomination,  and  then  came  the  memorable  climax; 
a  delegate  to  see  Mr.  Roosevelt,  on  a  vitally  important  mat 
ter,  who,  when  admitted  to  the  conference,  announced  with 
ill-concealed  excitement  that  he  represented  thirty-two  South 
ern  delegates  to  the  Republican  Convention  who  would 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  85 

pledge  themselves  to  vote  for  the  Colonel  as  the  Presidential 
candidate,  provided  that  they  would  be  permitted  to  vote 
with  the  old-line  Republicans  on  all  motions  with  reference 
to  party  organization,  platform,  etc.  Here  were  thirty-two 
votes,  and  all  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  needed  was  twenty- 
eight. 

Without  a  moment's  hesitation  and  in  the  deathlike  silence 
of  that  room  the  Colonel's  answer  rang  out,  clearly  and  dis 
tinctly:  "Thank  the  delegates  you  represent,  but  tell  them 
that  I  cannot  permit  them  to  vote  for  me  unless  they  vote 
for  all  progressive  principles  for  which  I  have  fought,  for 
which  the  Progressive  element  in  the  Republican  party  stands 
and  by  which  I  stand  or  fall." 

Strong  men  broke  down  under  the  stress  of  that  night. 
Life-long  friends  of  Mr.  Roosevelt  endeavoured  to  persuade 
him  to  reconsider  his  decision.  After  listening  patiently 
he  turned  to  two  who  had  been  urging  him  to  accept  the  offer 
of  the  Southern  delegates,  placed  a  hand  on  the  shoulder  of 
each,  and  said:  "I  have  grown  to  regard  you  both  as  brothers; 
let  no  act  orword  of  yours  make  that  relationship  impossible." 

While  the  formalities  of  Mr.  Taft's  nomination 
were  as  yet  incomplete  the  delegates  supporting 
Mr.  Roosevelt,  who  were  convinced  that  they  were 
a  true  majority  of  the  Republican  Convention, 
gathered  almost  spontaneously  in  Orchestra  Hall 
and  nominated  Roosevelt  for  the  Presidency.  The 
Progressive  party  was  thus  born.  It  was  com 
pletely  organized  in  every  state  in  the  Union  dur 
ing  the  next  few  weeks  and  cast  more  than  four 
million  votes  in  November.  It  was  a  political 
achievement,  solely  the  fruit  of  Roosevelt's  ex- 


86    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

traordinary  personality,  unparalleled  in  the  his 
tory  of  this  country — or  any  other  for  that  matter. 

The  Progressive  campaign  was  one  of  very  deep 
feeling  and  earnestness  and  of  some  bitterness, 
although  I  do  not  think  that  the  bitterness  was 
greater — perhaps  it  was  even  less — than  that  of 
the  presidential  campaigns  of  my  boyhood  and 
early  manhood.  Possibly  the  very  fact  that  they 
had  formerly  been  close  friends  led  both  Mr.  Taft 
and  Mr.  Roosevelt  to  feel  especially  strongly  about 
the  personal  contest  in  which  they  had  become  in 
volved.  This  peculiar  feeling  of  antagonism  found 
vent  in  two  speeches,  both  made  in  New  England, 
one  by  Mr.  Taft,  and  one  by  Mr.  Roosevelt,  in 
which  some  invective  was  employed  on  both  sides. 
I  think  it  is  only  fair  to  Mr.  Roosevelt's  memory 
to  say  that  it  was  not  he  who  cast  the  first  stone, 
but  that  he  struck  back  only  when  he  felt  that  he 
had  been  himself  "hit  below  the  belt."  And  dur 
ing  the  rest  of  the  campaign,  although  his  own  mo 
tives  were  repeatedly  attacked,  he  never  resorted 
to  aspersing  the  motives  or  personal  character  of 
his  opponents. 

That,  however,  is  happily  an  episode  of  the  past, 
and  it  is  a  satisfaction  to  all  their  friends,  many  of 
whom  shared  their  friendship  with  each  man,  that 
the  two  ex-Presidents  were  reconciled  before  the 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  87 

end  came,  ^whatever  harshness  of  language  Mr. 
Roosevelt  may  have  employed  in  the  one  speech  to 
which  I  have  referred,  acrimony  was  not  at  all 
characteristic  of  him.  Indeed,  there  may  well  be 
repeated  of  him  what  Lord  Rosebery,  in  his  life 
of  William  Pitt,  said  of  Charles  James  Fox: 

The  mastering  passion  of  Fox's  mature  life  was  the  love  of 
liberty;  it  is  this  which  made  him  take  a  vigorous,  occasionally 
an  intemperate,  part  against  every  man  or  measure  in  which 
he  could  trace  the  taint  or  tendency  to  oppression;  it  is  this 
which  sometimes  made  him  speak  with  unworthy  bitterness; 
but  it  was  this  which  gave  him  moral  power,  which  has  neu 
tralized  the  errors  of  his  political  career,  which  makes  his 
faults  forgotten  and  his  memory  sweet.  * 

During  the  entire  summer  of  1912,  while  he  was 
involved  in  a  contest  that  cost  him  friendships 
and  associations  that  meant  much  to  him,  he 
preserved  his  poise  and  equanimity  in  a  very 
marked  degree.  He  went  through  the  National 
campaign  of  1912  as  he  went  through  the  state 
campaign  of  1910,  in  a  vigorous,  alert,  undismayed, 
and  actually  happy  frame  of  mind.  I  think  he 
was  sustained  by  the  knowledge  that  there 
were  thousands  upon  thousands  of  Americans, 
whom  he  had  never  seen  or  spoken  to,  who  liked 
him  and  trusted  him.  My  brother  who  once 
made  a  campaign  trip  with  him,  during  the  period 


88    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

in  which  the  Progressive  party  was  gradually 
developing,  has  described  as  follows,  for  a  French 
periodical,  this  affection  of  the  plain  people  for 
the  man  whom  they  delighted  to  call  "Teddy5': 

It  was  my  fortune  to  accompany  him  on  this  journey  in  a 
private  car.  He  was  not  then  President,  for  he  had  retired 
from  office  the  year  before;  he  was  not  a  candidate  for  elec 
tion.  He  was  simply  a  private  citizen;  but  everywhere 
people  came  in  throngs  to  greet  him.  He  was  their  man. 
I  remember  one  night,  while  the  train  was  rushing  through 
one  of  the  great  central  prairie  states,  I  looked  out  of  the 
window  just  before  I  went  to  sleep  and  saw  in  the  lighted 
doorway  of  one  isolated  farmhouse  a  little  family  group  gath 
ered  and  waving  a  flag;  as  I  watched,  another  farmhouse 
flashed  by  and  there  was  another  little  group  waving  their 
salute.  It  was  as  if  they  had  waited  up  to  bid  a  welcome  and 
a  good-bye  to  a  brother,  though  they  knew  in  advance  he 
would  be  unseen  and  unseeing.  And  in  the  morning  I 
waked  up  very  early;  it  was  scarcely  dawn;  but  as  I  looked  out 
the  people  were  up  and  greeting  their  friend.  All  night  long, 
apparently,  these  friends  of  Theodore  Roosevelt  whom  he 
never  saw,  one  family  group  after  another,  had  been  giving 
him  their  benediction. 

Another  day  on  this  same  journey  stands  out  in  my  mem 
ory.  It  was  a  Sunday.  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  stated  positively 
that  he  would  make  no  speeches  that  day.  The  special  train 
was  to  run  from  the  morning  until  almost  dusk  without  a 
stop.  It  had  not  run  far  when  I  heard  a  strange  sound.  It 
swelled  suddenly  into  a  confusion  of  voices  and  then  subsided. 
I  looked  out.  We  had  just  passed  a  railway  station  in  a 
wide  stretch  of  country.  Around  the  station  I  saw  a  crowd 
of  people.  Where  had  this  crowd  come  from?  Every  farm 
house  for  miles  must  have  contributed  its  entire  household. 
Again  as  we  passed  another  station  came  the  crescendo  and 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  89 

diminuendo  of  the  sound  of  voices.  Mr.  Roosevelt  came  out 
from  his  stateroom  where  he  had  been  reading.  He  could 
not  pass  these  friends  of  his,  friends  he  had  never  before  seen, 
but  friends  who  had  cared  so  much  for  him  that  they  had 
driven  for  miles  over  the  rough  country  roads,  in  all  sorts 
of  vehicles,  simply  in  order  to  be  beside  the  track  as  his  train 
went  by.  So  thirty  times  that  day  the  sound  of  cheering 
voices  swelled,  thirty  times  the  train  stopped,  thirty  times 
Mr.  Roosevelt  left  his  reading  to  be  out  on  the  rear  platform 
and  greet  those  who  had  for  the  most  part  never  seen  him, 
and  had  no  hope  of  seeing  him,  but  who  came  just  to  show 
their  friendship. 

I  am  reminded,  by  my  brother's  account  of 
Roosevelt's  genius  for  friendship,  of  an  incident 
which  came  under  my  own  observation. 

During  the  gubernatorial  campaign  of  1910, 
which  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's 
object,  a  defeat  which  I  think  he  foresaw,  he 
maintained  his  good  spirits  and  even  gayety  of 
humour,  although  it  must  have  been  a  very  trying 
summer.  The  days  that  he  spent  at  his  office  were 
constantly  interrupted  by  an  interminable  pro 
cession  of  callers  with  all  of  whom  he  was  patient, 
although  in  only  a  few  cases  could  he  have  had  any 
interest  in  seeing  them.  One  day  while  I  was 
seated  in  his  private  office,  which  was  a  fairly  good- 
sized  room,  his  secretary  announced  Senator  Carter 
of  Montana.  The  Senator  was  shown  into  the 
room.  He  was  dressed,  as  I  recall  it,  in  a  gray 


90    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

frock  coat.     His  round  face,  surmounted  with  red 
hair,  shone  with  pleasure. 

To  my  intense  amazement  Mr.  Roosevelt  leaped 
out  of  his  chair,  seized  the  Senator  by  the  hands 
and  they  began  dancing  back  and  forth  across  the 
room,  chanting  the  following  doggerel  in  unison: 

"Oh,  the  Irish  and  the  Dutch 
They  don't  amount  to  much, 
But  huroo  for  the  Scandinoo-vian!" 

After  Senator  Carter  had  left,  Mr.  Roosevelt, 
amused  at  the  look  of  surprised  interrogation  on  my 
face,  volunteered  the  following  explanation:  "Tom 
Carter  is  a  good  friend  of  mine,  although  we  have 
often  disagreed  radically  on  political  principles  and 
issues.  He  is  something  of  a  standpatter  and  I  am 
afraid  he  sometimes  thinks  I  am  something  of  a 
visionary  crank.  Some  years  ago,  during  a  politi 
cal  campaign,  he  and  I  were  scheduled  to  speak  on 
the  same  occasion  in  a  town  of  the  Northwest. 
When  we  came  out  of  the  hall  and  were  walking 
along  the  boardwalk  of  the  little  village  to  our 
hotel  we  met  a  huge  Swede  or  Norwegian  who  was 
somewhat  exhilarated  from  pouring  too  many  liba 
tions  in  honour  of  the  Republican  party.  As  he 
zigzagged  his  way  along  the  narrow  sidewalk,  we 
had  to  step  aside  to  avoid  a  collision.  He  was 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  91 

singing  at  the  top  of  his  lungs  that  song  about  the 
Irish  and  the  Dutch.  Now  Senator  Carter  is 
Irish  and  I  am  Dutch  and  we  thought  it  was  a 
very  good  joke  on  us.  So  every  time  we  have  met 
since,  unless  there  are  too  many  people  about,  we 
are  apt  to  greet  each  other  as  we  did  just  now. 
It  has  become  a  kind  of  ritual." 

The  Progressive  campaign  of  1912,  with  its  ex 
hausting  work  and  its  depressing  disappointments, 
was  a  severe  test  for  any  man.  Roosevelt  came 
through  it  with  two  of  his  marked  and  engaging 
personal  qualities  unimpaired — his  capacity  for 
friendship  and  his  unquenchable  sense  of  humour. 


CHAPTER  IV 

STATESMANSHIP 

THEORETICALLY,  the  words  "statesman 
ship"  and  "politics"  are  synonymous.  The 
primary  meaning  of  "politics"  is  given  in  the  Cen 
tury  Dictionary  as:  "The  art  or  science  of  govern 
ment";  and  the  same  authority  defines  ''states- 
manship"  as: The  qualifications  of  "a  man  who  is 
versed  in  the  art  of  government."  But  the  devel 
opment  of  democracy  among  English-speaking 
peoples  has  given  rise  to  secondary  meanings  of  the 
terms  which  involve  a  marked  differentiation  be 
tween  them.  The  Century  Dictionary  adds  to 
its  first  definition  of  "statesmanship"  that  it  is: 
"Political  skill  in  the  higher  sense"  and  asserts 
that  "politics"  usually  means,  in  American  prac 
tice  at  least,  "the  art  or  vocation  of  guiding  or  in 
fluencing  the  policy  of  a  government  through  the 
organization  of  a  party  among  its  citizens;  the  art 
of  influencing  public  opinion,  attracting  and  mar 
shalling  voters;  in  an  evil  sense,  the  schemes  and 
intrigues  of  political  parties,  or  of  cliques  or  in 
dividual  politicians."  The  same  lexicographers 

92 


STATESMANSHIP  93 

who  tell  us  that  the  word  "politics"  is  derived  from 
the  Greek  word  TcoXfriqc;,  citizen,  emphasize  the 
degraded  side  of  politicians.  Is  this  because  of 
the  instinctive  distrust  of  democracy  on  the  part 
of  the  French  and  English  intellectuals  who  made 
our  earliest  dictionaries  ? 

For  some  reason  or  other,  which  it  would  be 
interesting  to  inquire  into  but  which  is  not  germane 
to  my  purpose,  mankind  has  always  looked  some 
what  superciliously  upon  the  mechanics  of  any  art. 
The  poet  is  more  highly  honoured  than  the  gram 
marian,  the  painter  than  the  chemist,  the  violinist 
than  the  physicist,  the  aviator  than  the  machinist. 
And  yet  we  could  not  have  the  poetry  of  Keats 
without  the  men  who  have  grubbed  out  the  rules 
of  syntax  and  prosody;  the  paintings  of  Monet 
without  the  workers  who  have  toiled  over  the 
chemistry  of  colours  and  the  laws  of  light;  the  music 
of  Fritz  Kreisler  without  those  who  have  discov 
ered  in  the  workshop  and  laboratory  the  principles 
of  harmonies  and  resonance;  the  heroic  "aces" 
on  the  western  front  without  the  grimy  artisans 
in  overalls  who  adjusted  and  tuned  up  the  engines 
of  the  battle-planes.  So,  too,  we  could  not  have 
statesmen  if  there  were  no  politicians  to  create  the 
machinery  without  which  statesmanship  would  be 
inoperative.  Nevertheless,  it  has  long  been  the 


94    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

fashion  to  treat  politics  and  politicians  as  if  they 
were  necessarily  contemptible.  James  Russell 
Lowell  once  said:  "I  always  hated  politics  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  the  word."  James  Bryce,  in  his 
classic  and  monumental  "American  Common 
wealth,"  speaks  of  "the  local  and  dirty  work  of 
politics,"  and  gives  one  of  his  chapters  the  signifi 
cant  title:  "Why  the  best  men  do  not  go  into 
politics." 

Now  with  this  secondary — although,  unfortu 
nately,  customary — interpretation  of  the  terms 
"politics"  "politicians"  " political  parties"  Theo 
dore  Roosevelt  had  no  sympathy  whatever.  He 
knew,  of  course,  that  politics  is  often  corrupt; 
that  politicians  are  often  ignorant,  selfish,  and  dis 
honourable;  that  political  parties  are  often  narrow, 
hide-bound,  and  short-sighted.  But  he  did  not 
believe  that  these  evils  are  essential  to  and  in 
separable  from  politics  any  more  than  reactionary 
dogmatism  and  inquisitorial  cruelty  are  essential 
and  irremediable  characteristics  of  the  Church. 
He  believed  that  politics  and  political  activity  in 
the  administrative  sense — in  the  machine  sense,  so 
to  speak — are  the  very  basis  of  democracy.  Poli 
tics  meant 'citizenship  to  him  and  he  thought  that 
every  citizen  should  take  some  part  in  political 
activities.  Moreover,  he  believed  that  deliber- 


STATESMANSHIP  95 

ately  to  make  politics  a  profession,  a  means  of  live 
lihood,  is  no  more  unworthy  or  undignified  than 
to  make  a  living  from  the  practice  of  medicine  or  of 
law,  provided  that  the  professional  politician  puts 
service  to  the  State  as  his  main  object.  There  are 
doubtless  quacks  among  the  doctors,  pettifoggers 
among  the  lawyers,  and  hypocrites  among  the 
clergy,  but  we  do  not  for  that  reason  condemn  all 
men  who  choose  Law,  Medicine,  or  the  Church  for 
their  life  work  and  are  supported  by  the  proper 
emoluments  of  their  services. 

It  is  necessary  to  understand  this  point  of  view 
in  order  properly  to  interpret  Theodore  Roose 
velt's  life-long  attitude  toward  what  is  too  often 
contemptuously  called  "practical  politics."  The 
very  mainspring  of  his  tireless  activities  was  states 
manship — the  framing,  shaping,  administering, 
and  maintaining  of  those  great  policies  of  national 
and  international  relations  that  make  civilized 
society  a  permanent,  vital,  and  progressive  organ 
ism.  He  lived,  however,  not  in  the  clouds  but 
with  both  feet  on  the  ground,  and  he  knew  that 
great  State  policies  cannot  be  obtained  unless  the 
political  machine  that  produces  them  is  kept  in 
good  running  order.  Statesmanship  is  like  a  val 
uable  and  beautifully  patterned  silk;  politics  is  the 
intricate  loom  on  which  it  is  woven.  Roosevelt's 


96    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

eye  was  always  on  the  silk;  that  is  what  he  was  ulti 
mately  striving  for;  but  he  was  never  bored,  or 
irritated,  or  disgusted,  as  statesmen  of  the  highly 
sensitized  type  of  James  Russell  Lowell  or  John 
Hay  often  are,  by  the  necessity  of  tinkering  with 
the  loom,  or  of  soiling  his  hands  with  the  lubri 
cating  oil,  or  of  spending  tedious  hours  in  replacing 
broken  or  worn-out  parts.  He  felt  a  zest  to  the 
very  last  for  this  mechanical  side  of  statesman 
ship. 

Among  my  papers  I  find  a  letter  written  to  my 
father  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  dated  the  White 
House,  February  23,  1906.  It  discloses,  it  seems 
to  me  in  a  way  pertinent  to  what  I  am  contending 
for  in  this  chapter,  Roosevelt's  own  attitude  of 
mind  toward  the  machinery  of  politics.  The  cir 
cumstances  that  prompted  the  letter  are  as  fol 
lows: 

In  the  November  elections  of  1905  the  defeat  of 
machine-made  tickets  in  both  the  Republican  and 
Democratic  parties  in  various  states  was  so  marked 
that  the  Outlook  gave  a  large  amount  of  space  to 
the  phenomenon  calling  it:  "The  Rout  of  the 
Bosses."  Massachusetts  was  nearly  lost  to  the 
Republican  party.  In  commenting  upon  this  sur 
prising  reversal  of  form  in  a  banner  Republican 
state,  the  Outlook  said  editorially: 


STATESMANSHIP  97 

Senator  Lodge  is  a  boss  of  agreeable  personality — a  gentle 
man  of  culture,  a  "scholar  in  politics" — against  whose  per 
sonal  integrity  no  suspicion  has  ever  been  uttered,  but  he 
has  undertaken  to  tell  the  people  of  Massachusetts  what 
they  ought  to  wish  instead  of  asking  them  what  they  do  wish, 
and  every  vote  for  Mr.  Whitney  was  less  a  vote  for  reci 
procity  than  a  vote  against  the  spirit  and  methods  of  a  poli 
tical  dictator. 

This  drew  from  Mr.  Roosevelt  the  letter  above 
referred  to,  in  which  he  said: 

You  would  be  surprised  to  know  how  many  men  have 
spoken  to  me  about  the  article  on  Lodge.  Lodge  has  violent 
enemies.  But  he  is  a  boss  or  the  head  of  a  machine  only  in 
the  sense  that  Henry  Clay  and  Webster  were  bosses  and 
heads  of  political  machines;  that  is,  it  is  a  very  great  injus 
tice  to  couple  his  name  with  the  names  of  those  commonly 
called  bosses,  in  any  article.  I  know  Massachusetts  politics 
well.  I  know  Lodge's  share  in  them,  and  I  know  what  he 
has  done  in  the  Senate.  He  and  I  differ  radically  on  certain 
propositions,  as  for  instance  on  the  pending  Rate  Bill  and  on 
the  arbitration  treaties  of  a  couple  of  years  ago;  but  I  say 
deliberately  that  during  the  twenty  years  he  has  been  in 
Washington  he  has  been  on  the  whole  the  best  and  most  use 
ful  servant  of  the  public  to  be  found  in  either  house  of  Con 
gress.  I  say  also  that  he  has  during  that  period  led  politics 
in  Massachusetts  in  the  very  way  which,  if  it  could  only  be 
adopted  in  all  our  states,  would  mean  the  elimination  of  graft, 
of  bossism,  and  of  every  other  of  the  evils  which  are  most 
serious  in  our  politics.  Lodge  is  a  man  of  very  strong  con 
victions,  and  this  means  that  when  his  convictions  differ 
from  mine  I  am  apt  to  substitute  the  words  "narrow"  and 
"obstinate"  for  "strong";  and  he  has  a  certain  aloofness  and 
coldness  of  manner  that  irritate  people  who  do  not  live  in  New 


98    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

England.     But  he  is  an  eminently  fit  successor  of  Webster 
and  Sumner  in  the  senatorship  from  Massachusetts. 

In  other  words,  Roosevelt  believed  in  political 
organizations;  he  believed  that  those  organizations 
must  have  managers,  often  miscalled  "bosses," 
just  as  every  business  man  of  common  sense 
knows  that  factories  and  ranches  and  railroads 
must  have  foremen  or  bosses.  The  political  man 
ager,  however,  must  exercise  his  function  in  order 
to  get  the  best  product  out  of  the  machine,  which 
is  the  general  welfare  not  merely  of  the  party 
but  of  all  the  citizens. 

Nowhere  else  in  his  writings,  so  far  as  I  know, 
has  Roosevelt  expressed  so  clearly  his  buoyant 
enjoyment  of  his  work,  of  its  very  obstacles  and 
rebuffs,  as  he  did  spontaneously  in  an  address  to 
the  students  of  the  University  of  Cambridge  on 
May  26,  1910,  when  he  received  the  honorary 
degree  of  LL.D.  His  discourse  on  this  occasion,  as 
I  have  said  in  a  preface  of  his  collected  "African 
and  European  Addresses"  published  by  the  Put- 
nams,  was  not  like  his  Romanes  lecture  at  Oxford, 
part  of  the  academic  ceremony  connected  with  the 
conferring  of  the  honorary  degree.  It  was  spoken 
to  an  audience  of  undergraduates  when,  after  the 
academic  exercises  in  the  Senate  House,  he  was 
elected  to  honorary  membership  in  the  Union 


STATESMANSHIP  99 

Society,  the  well-known  Cambridge  debating  club 
which  has  trained  some  of  the  best  public  speakers 
of  England.  At  Oxford  the  doctors  and  dignitaries 
cracked  the  jokes — in  Latin — while  the  under 
graduates  were  highly  decorous.  At  Cambridge, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  students  indulged  in  the 
traditional  pranks  which  often  lend  a  colour  of 
gayety  to  University  ceremonies  at  both  Oxford 
and  Cambridge.  Mr.  Roosevelt  entered  heartily 
into  the  spirit  of  the  undergraduates,  and  it  was 
evident  that  they,  quite  as  heartily,  liked  his  under 
standing  of  the  fact  that  the  best  university  and  col 
lege  life  consists  in  a  judicious  mixture  of  the  grave 
and  the  gay.  The  honour  that  these  undergrad 
uates  paid  to  their  guest  was  seriously  intended, 
was  admirably  planned,  and  its  genuineness  was 
all  the  more  apparent  because  it  had  a  note  of 
pleasantry. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  spoke  as  a  university  student  to 
university  students  and  what  he  said — although 
brief,  extemporaneous,  and  even  unpremeditated — 
was  the  genuine  expression  of  his  philosophy  of 
life.  The  speech  was  frequently  interrupted  by  the 
laughter  and  applause  of  the  audience,  and  the 
theory  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  propounded,  namely, 
that  any  man  in  any  walk  of  life  may  achieve  gen 
uine  success  simply  by  developing  ordinary  quali- 


ioo     IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ties  to  a  more  than  ordinary  degree,  was  widely 
quoted  and  discussed  by  the  press  of  Great  Britain. 
I  quote  the  following  passage  from  that  speech  be 
cause  it  confirms  the  point  I  am  endeavouring  to 
make. 

We  have  in  the  United  States  an  organization  composed 
of  the  men  who  forty-five  years  ago  fought  to  a  finish  the  great 
Civil  War.  One  thing  that  has  always  appealed  to  me  in 
that  organization  is  that  all  of  the  men  admitted  are  on  a 
perfect  equality,  provided  the  records  show  that  their  duty 
was  well  done.  Whether  a  man  served  as  a  lieutenant- 
general  or  an  eighteen-year-old  recruit,  so  long  as  he  was  able 
to  serve  for  six  months  and  did  his  duty  in  his  appointed 
place,  then  he  is  called  Comrade,  and  stands  on  an  exact 
equality  with  the  other  men.  The  same  principle  should 
shape  our  association  in  ordinary  civil  life. 

I  am  not  speaking  cant  to  you.  I  remember  once  sitting 
at  a  table  with  six  or  eight  other  public  officials,  and  each 
was  explaining  how  he  regarded  being  in  public  life — how 
only  the  sternest  sense  of  duty  prevented  him  from  resigning 
his  office,  and  how  the  strain  of  working  for  a  thankless  con 
stituency  was  telling  upon  him — and  that  nothing  but  the 
fact  that  he  felt  he  ought  to  sacrifice  his  comfort  to  the  wel 
fare  of  his  country  kept  him  in  the  arduous  life  of  statesman 
ship.  It  went  round  the  table  until  it  came  to  my  turn. 
This  was  during  my  first  term  of  office  as  President  of  the 
United  States.  I  said:  "Now,  gentlemen,  I  do  not  wish 
there  to  be  any  misunderstanding.  ^  I  like  my  job,  and  I 
want  to  keep  it  for  four  years  longer."  [Loud  laughter  and 
applause.]  I  don't  think  any  President  ever  enjoyed  him 
self  more  than  I  did.  Moreover,  I  don't  think  any  ex- Presi 
dent  ever  enjoyed  himself  more.  I  have  enjoyed  my  life 
and  my  work  because  I  thoroughly  believe  that  success — 


STATESMANSHIP  101 

the  real  success — does  not  depend  upon  the  position  you 
hold,  but  upon  how  you  carry  yourself  in  that  position. 
There  is  no  man  here  to-day  who  has  not  the  chance  so  to 
shape  his  life  after  he  leaves  this  university  that  he  shall  have 
the  right  to  feel,  when  his  life  ends,  that  he  has  made  a 
real  success  of  it;  and  his  making  a  real  success  of  it  does 
not  in  the  least  depend  upon  the  prominence  of  the  position 
he  holds.^x 

The  spirit  lying  back  of  these  words  explains, 
it  seems  to  me,  the  real  joy  he  had  in  his  rows  with 
the  United  States  Senate — rows  which  almost 
drove  Secretary  John  Hay  to  his  grave — or  in  con 
tests  with  political  bosses  like  Senator  "Tom" 
Platt. 

I  remember  an  occasion  when  I  was  one  of  a 
luncheon  party  at  the  White  House — one  of  those 
never-to-be-forgotten  luncheons  at  which  Presi 
dent  Roosevelt  was  in  the  hsbft.pf  collecting  all 

*•***•  '  '>  "* 
sorts  of  interesting  guests ,  from  all  parts. of  the 

world.  The  place  of  honour -xvas,  filled;  by  a,n  of 
ficial  of  the  British  Government  who  was  visiting 
the  United  States  for  the  first  time.  I  was  seated 
two  or  three  places  away  from  the  President,  next 
to  Governor  Curry  of  New  Mexico,  who  had  been  a 
member  of  Roosevelt's  "Rough  Riders"  in  the 
Spanish  War,  had  lived  a  somewhat  tempestuous 
career  on  the  western  frontier  (where  he  had  shot 
and  killed  one  or  two  desperadoes  in  pursuance  of 


102    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

his  duty  as  sheriff),  and  was  now  filling  honourably 
and  admirably  the  high  office  to  which  the  Presi 
dent  had  appointed  him.  Roosevelt  was  then 
engaged  in  one  of  his  periodical  contests  with  the 
Senate  over  some  important  legislation  of  reform 
connected  with  the  "Predatory  Trusts"  or  Con 
servation — I  forget  which — and,  being  much  in 
terested  in  the  contest,  I  had  that  morning  visited 
the  Senate  Chamber,  where  I  had  happened  es 
pecially  to  notice  Senator  Platt  of  New  York,  the 
arch-enemy  of  all  progressive  Republicans,  sitting 
inert  like  a  death's  head,  with  sunken  eyes,  and 
appearing  to  be  in  the  last  stages  of  physical  decay. 

Soon  after  we  sat  down  at  the  table  the  President 
leaned  over  and  said:  "Lawrence,  I  want  you  to 
know  Governor  Curry;  he's  well  worth  knowing 
in  spite  of  his  homicidal  tendencies!" 

"I  have  already  introduced  myself  to  Governor 
Curry,.  Jyl)\. President,"  I  replied,  "and  I  wish  you 
would  persuade  him  to  go  over  to  the  Senate  Cham 
ber,  from  which  I  have  just  come,  and  exercise  his 
homicidal  skill  upon  the  senators  from  my  state!" 

"A  good  suggestion!"  was  the  President's  retort. 
"In  fact,"  he  added,  showing  his  teeth  in  a  char 
acteristic  smile,  "he  could  take  a  pot  shot  at  the 
whole  lot  of  them  without  doing  a  great  amount 
of  harm  to  the  country!" 


Colonel  Roosevelt  in  his  English  Academic  Robes 


derwood  &  Underwood 


This  is  believed  to  have  been  Colonel  Roosevelt's  favourite 
photograph  of  himself 


STATESMANSHIP  103 

The  undisguised  amazement  of  the  British  guest 
of  honour  showed  that  he  did  not  understand, 
as  everyone  else  at  the  table  did,  that  this  was 
merely  a  symptom  of  that  high  good  humour  in 
which  Roosevelt  gave  and  took  political  blows  in 
contests  the  like  of  which  completely  embittered 
President  Andrew  Johnson,  led  President  Cleveland 
to  make  serious  protests,  and  even  upset  the 
equanimity  of  so  philosophical  a  temperament 
as  that  of  Washington.  Roosevelt,  however,  was 
not  a  philosopher;  he  was  simply  human.  He  took 
the  hard  knocks  of  life,  not  with  resignation  but 
with  a  kind  of  boyish  zest  and  joy.  When  attacked 
he  hit  hard  in  return,  but  without  bitterness  or 
rancour.  And,  in  spite  of  his  not-infrequent  con 
flicts  with  Congress,  his  opponents  had  a  kind  of 
subconscious  fondness  for  him  even  when  they  were 
exchanging  blows. 

E.  L.  Godkin — the  brilliant  editor  of  the  New 
York  Evening  Post  and  founder  of  the  Nation  (the 
present  character  of  which  must  almost  make 
him  turn  in  his  grave) — and  Theodore  Roosevelt 
were  at  swords'  points  for  many  years.  Godkin, 
the  older  man  of  the  two,  who  professed  and  doubt 
less  did  have  a  faith  in  theoretical  democracy  but 
actually  detested  democratic  affiliations  and  as 
sociations,  deplored  in  "young  Theodore"  the 


io4    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

tendencies  which  he  thought  he  saw  toward  jingo 
ism  and  "practical  politics";  above  all,  he  could  not 
tolerate  Roosevelt's  perfectly  open  and  frank  con 
ferences  with  "Boss"  Platt  of  New  York  State. 
On  the  other  hand,  Roosevelt  regarded  Godkin  as 
the  archetype  of  the  uncompromising  mugwump 
and  unpractical  idealist  who  thought  that  the  seven 
or  eight  million  citizens  of  New  York  could  be 
governed  exactly  as  he  governed  the  subscribers  to 
his  newspapers,  that  is  by  admirably  written  mes 
sages  and  semi-satirical  essays  composed  in  the 
seclusion  of  a  private  sanctum.  I  am  a  little  du 
bious,  therefore,  as  to  what  Theodore  Roosevelt's 
comment  would  be  if  he  could  hear  me  say,  as  I 
now  proceed  to,  that  I  think  Mr.  Godkin,  without 
knowing  it  of  course,  defined  Theodore  Roosevelt's 
philosophy  as  well  as  it  could  possibly  be  defined  in 
so  brief  a  compass.  In  an  essay  entitled  "Crimi 
nal  Politics,"  first  printed  in  1890  in  the  North 
American  Review,  Mr.  Godkin  says: 

Politics  is  a  practical  art.  It  deals  with  men  as  they  are, 
and  not  as  we  wish  them  to  be.  There  is  hardly  one  of  us 
who,  if  he  had  the  power  of  peopling  New  York  anew,  would 
not  make  an  immense  number  of  changes  among  its  present 
inhabitants.  But  the  problem  before  the  wise  and  good  is 
simply  how  to  give  the  present  inhabitants,  such  as  they 
are,  with  all  their  imperfections  on  their  heads,  the  best  at 
tainable  government. 


STATESMANSHIP  105 

Theodore  Roosevelt  never  made  any  claim  to 
be  either  wise  or  good — although  the  universal 
testimony  of  his  fellow  citizens,  now  that  he  is 
gone,  is  that  he  was  both.  But  he  did  profoundly 
believe  in  dealing  with  men  as  they  are  and  he 
strove  for  the  best  attainable  government  that 
imperfect  mankind  is  capable  of  organizing  in  a 
democracy  where  the  good,  the  bad,  and  the  indif 
ferent  must  somehow  manage  to  work  together. 

This  was  the  constant  political  background — 
steadily  growing  more  distinct  as  his  life  developed 
— of  his  statesmanship.  Only  in  the  reflection  and 
perspective  of  that  background  may  the  achieve 
ments  of  his  genius  as  a  statesman  be  intelligently 
measured  and  estimated. 

What  were  some  of  those  achievements?  I  shall 
try  to  interpret  the  most  important  in  the  following 
categorical  fashion. 

NATIONALISM— -The  basic  doctrine  of 
Roosevelt's  philosophy  of  statesmanship,  the  doc 
trine  that  ran  like  an  always-visible  golden  thread 
through  the  entire  fabric  of  his  words  and  acts  as  a 
citizen  and  publicist,  was  Nationalism.  His  be 
lief  in  a  strong  and  virile  development  of  national 
character  and  national  action  will  be  found  in  his 
very  earliest  utterances./ It  is  sometimes  thought 
that  his  urgency  of  what,  during  the  last  four  years 


io6    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

of  his  life,  he  called  "one  hundred-per-cent  Ameri 
canism"  was  suggested  to  him  by  the  dangers  that 
threatened  the  unity  if  not  the  very  existence  of 
the  American  people  during  the  dark  days  of  the 
European  war.  But  he  had  given  expression  to  the 
same  creed  in  almost  the  same  words  in  the  first 
book  he  ever  published.  When  he  was  twenty- 
two  years  old  he  wrote  his  "Naval  History  of  the 
War  of  1812."  It  is  so  sound  and  fair  a  piece  of 
historical  writing  that  it  has  been  adopted,  I  be 
lieve,  by  the  British  Admiralty  as  a  standard 
authority  on  the  naval  battles  of  the  first  struggle 
of  the  English-speaking  people  to  establish  free 
dom  of  the  seas.  Take  the  following  passage  for 
example  from  that  naval  history: 

They  [certain  aspects  of  the  War  of  1812]  teach  nothing 
new;  it  is  the  old,  old  lesson,  that  a  miserly  economy  in 
preparation  may  in  the  end  involve  a  lavish  outlay  of  men 
and  money,  which,  after  all,  comes  too  late  to  more  than 
offset  partially  the  evils  produced  by  the  original  short 
sighted  parsimony.  .  .  .  The  necessity  for  an  efficient 
navy  is  so  evident  that  only  our  almost  incredible  short 
sightedness  prevents  our  at  once  preparing  one. 

Does  this  not  sound  as  if  Roosevelt  had  written 
it  in  1915  when,  as  a  man  nearly  sixty  years  of  age, 
he  was  laboriously  endeavouring  to  arouse  his 
fellow  countrymen  to  the  paramount  duty  and 
necessity  of  national  preparedness? 


STATESMANSHIP  107 

This  same  doctrine  was  expressed  to  me  in  a  letter 
which  he  wrote  from  the  White  House  in  January, 
1903.  It  was  in  reply  to  one  I  had  written  about 
the  judicial  settlement  of  international  disputes, 
saying  that  I  believed  that,  in  the  last  analysis, 
they  must  rest  on  the  physical  power  of  the  court 
to  make  them  effective.  He  wrote  as  follows : 

Good  for  you!  Important  though  it  is  that  we  should  get 
the  Hague  Tribunal  to  act  in  this  case,  where  it  can  properly 
act,  it  is  very  much  more  important  that  we  have  a  first- 
class  navy  and  an  efficient,  though  small,  army.  No  Hague 
Court  will  save  us  if  we  come  short  in  these  respects. 

While  I  was  talking  over  the  war  situation  with 
Roosevelt  one  evening  in  the  summer  of  1917  in 
the  north  room  at  Sagamore  Hill  he  said  two  things 
which  seemed  to  me  worth  jotting  down  at  the 
time  as  typical  expressions  of  his  belief  in  the  neces 
sity  of  a  strong  physical  basis  for  both  the  individ 
ual  and  the  nation. 

The  first  was  a  reply  which  he  said  he  once  made 
to  a  boy  who  expressed  the  fear  that  he  might  be 
taken  for  a  "goody-goody"  if  he  followed  a  certain 
course  that  seemed  to  be  called  for  by  ethical 
principles.  "  Be  always  ready  to  fight  if  necessary. 
If  you  are  ready  to  fight,  you  can  be  as  good  as 
you  please  and  nobody  is  likely  to  complain." 

The  second  was  this  succinct  statement  with  re- 


io8    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

gard  to  national  vigour: "  A  race  must  do  something 
else  besides  work,  fight,  and  breathe;  but  if  it  does 
not  do  these  three  it  will  never  live  to  do  anything 
else." 

It  was  this  conviction  of  the  righteousness  of 
national  vigour  and  of  national  self-defense  that 
led  him,  when  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy— 
in  opposition  to  the  wishes  and  almost  in  violation 
of  the  definite  orders  of  his  chief,  Secretary  Long — 
to  prepare  the  American  Navy  for  the  hostilities 
with  Spain  which  he  foresaw  more  clearly  than 
most  of  his  superiors  in  office.  He  did  this  by 
framing  an  important  Personnel  Bill,  by  accumu 
lating  ammunition,  by  encouraging  the  Navy  in 
gunnery  practice,  and  by  distributing  ships  and 
supplies  in  such  a  way  that  the  decisive  victories 
of  Admirals  Dewey  and  Sampson  were  assured. 
It  was  this  conviction  that  led  him,  when  President, 
to  send  the  Battle  Fleet  around  the  world  in  1907, 
a  feat  of  naval  seamanship  unparalleled  before  or 
since.  The  foreign  experts  said  that  it  could  not 
be  done;  that  to  send  a  Battle  Fleet  across  the 
high  seas,  with  all  the  attendant  ships  necessary 
for  its  maintenance,  and  to  manoeuvre  it  through 
distant  straits  and  into  unaccustomed  harbours, 
would  inevitably  end  in  disaster.  The  dramatic 
and  complete  success  of  this  unprecedented  ad- 


STATESMANSHIP  109 

venture  did  more  to  convince  the  European  nations 
of  the  possibilities  of  efficiency  in  a  self-governing 
democracy  than  untold  volumes  of  blue  books  and 
state  papers. 

I  speak  with  some  confidence  of  Roosevelt's 
purpose  in  sending  the  Battle  Fleet  round  the 
world  because  he  talked  somewhat  fully  to  me 
about  it — as  will  be  seen  from  a  passage  in  a  letter 
which  he  wrote  to  me  from  Oyster  Bay  on  August 
29,  1907.  It  is  proper,  by  the  way,  to  interpolate 
the  fact  that  the  New  York  Sun,  in  those  days,  was 
under  a  different  proprietorship  and  policy  from 
those  under  which  it  is  published  to-day.  Its  pres 
ent  proprietor  is  Frank  Munsey,  a  friend  and  sup 
porter  of  Roosevelt,  who  bought  the  paper  several 
years  after  the  following  letter  was  written: 

There  has  been  one  extraordinary  development  during  the 
last  few  days.  I  had  not  supposed  that  the  Sun  could  sur 
prise  me.  I  know  that  there  was  no  form  of  attack  upon  me 
which  it  would  hesitate  to  make,  and  I  also  know  that  there 
was  no  type  of  corruption  which  would  cause  it  even  to  turn 
a  hair.  But  even  corrupt  men  sometimes  have  other  virtues 
and  I  had  supposed  that  the  Sun  would  remain  loyal  to  its 
past  in  supporting  the  Navy  and  in  refusing  to  sanction  an 
attack  upon  the  Administration  which  would  cause  the  coun 
try  discredit  in  foreign  eyes.  But  the  Wall  Street  campaign 
(I  hate  the  term  but  I  do  not  know  what  other  to  use)  is  so 
violent  that  it  really  looks  as  if  they  would  go  to  almost  any 
length.  Upon  my  word  I  have  never  seen  labour  leaders 
go  to  greater  extremes.  They  have  actually  taken  to  as- 


no    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

sailing  the  plan  for  sending  the  Battleship  Fleet  to  the  Pa 
cific.  Would  it  be  of  sufficient  interest  to  have  your  brother 
and  you  come  out  here  for  lunch  any  day  that  suits  you 
so  that  I  can  put  before  you  in  full  all  the  reasons  for  the 
step?  They  have  developed  very  rapidly. 


It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  this  invitation 
was  promptly  accepted.  The  reasons  that  Roose 
velt  gave  me  for  his  great  naval  venture  were 
three  in  number: 

First:  As  has  already  been  intimated,  he  believed 
that  the  Navy  is  our  first  line  of  defence.  He 
wished  to  have  it  not  only  powerful  but  maintained 
in  a  constant  state  of  the  highest  efficiency.  He 
wished  both  officers  and  men  to  have  as  nearly  as 
possible  the  experience  which  they  would  undergo 
in  fighting  and  manoeuvring  on  the  high  seas.  He 
felt  that  such  a  voyage  would  produce  a  spirit 
of  confidence  and  of  practical  skill  such  as  could 
be  developed  in  no  other  way. 

Second:  He  wanted  to  impress  the  country  with 
the  virtues  and  the  capacities  of  a  great  navy. 
He  knew  that  the  best  way  to  get  American 
public  opinion  to  support  his  policies  for  a  strong 
navy  was  to  arrest  the  attention  and  arouse  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  country  in  a  dramatic  fashion. 

Third,  and  perhaps  most  important  of  all:  He 
profoundly  desired  to  maintain  peace  between 


Underwood   &  Underwood 


President  Roosevelt  reviewing  the  Battle  Fleet  at  the  time 
of  its  world  cruise 


STATESMANSHIP  in 

Japan  and  the  United  States  whose  relations 
at  that  time  were  strained,  owing  to  the  situation 
in  California.  He  had  insisted  that  the  real  rights 
of  the  Japanese  in  California  should  be  respected, 
but  he  was  equally  determined  to  insist  that  the 
Japanese  should  respect  the  United  States.  "It 
is,"  he  said,  "  rightly  considered  a  great  compli 
ment  for  a  naval  fleet  to  visit  a  foreign  country. 
For  that  reason,  as  a  token  of  American  friendli 
ness  for  the  Japanese  people,  I  have  directed  the 
fleet  to  make  its  first  important  call  upon  Japan. 
I  hope  in  this  way  to  give  the  Japanese  a  visible 
sign  of  our  friendship.  At  the  same  time,  I  want 
to  impress  upon  them  the  fact  that  if  the  United 
States  should  ever  be  compelled  to  fight  at  sea  its 
naval  power  is  one  to  be  respected." 

This  visit  of  the  Fleet  to  Japan  was  not  in  the 
slightest  degree  a  threat,  nor  did  Roosevelt  so  re 
gard  it.  It  was  a  visit  of  friendship — but  made 
under  such  conditions  as  to  strengthen  the  dignity 
of  the  United  States  and  Japan's  respect  for  the 
power  and  determination  of  the  American  people. 
In  a  word,  it  put  into  visible  form  the  doctrine 
which  he  expressed  in  one  of  those  aphorisms  that 
have  become  inseparably  connected  with  his  name: 
"  Speak  softly,  but  carry  a  big  stick." 

At  the  same  time  he  was  somewhat  anxious  about 


ii2    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  Japanese  situation.  There  was  and  is  a  chau 
vinist  or  jingo  party  in  Japan  just  as  there  is  a 
chauvinist  or  jingo  faction  in  the  United  States. 
If  Japan  intended  to  make  war,  Roosevelt  intended 
to  be  prepared  for  it  and  he  told  me  that  his  in 
structions  were  that  the  Fleet  was  always  to  be 
prepared  for  action  no  matter  where  it  was.  He 
did  not  propose  to  have  anybody  "pull  a  gun"  on 
him  and  tell  him  to  throw  up  his  hands.  He  said 
that  in  an  official  speech  privately  addressed  to  a 
group  of  higher  officers  of  the  Fleet  he  had  told 
them  if  war  came  and  any  commander  lost  a  ship 
because  he  was  surprised  or  unprepared  he  might 
just  as  well  never  come  home  himself. 

What  the  effect  of  this  voyage  was  upon  the 
Japanese  Government  I  do  not  of  my  own  knowl 
edge  know,  but  I  can  testify  that  the  Germans 
were  particularly  impressed.  In  1910,  during 
Roosevelt's  memorable  tour  through  Europe,  I 
was  present  at  a  reception  given  to  him  jointly 
by  our  naval  and  our  military  attaches  in  Berlin. 
The  guests,  with  three  or  four  exceptions,  were 
distinguished  officers  of  the  Kaiser's  army  and 
navy.  The  naval  men  in  particular  did  not  con 
ceal  their  eagerness  to  meet  the  man  who  had 
performed  a  military  deed  at  sea  which  they  had 
regarded,  when  it  was  undertaken,  as  the  fool- 


STATESMANSHIP  113 

hardy  venture  of  an  inexperienced  braggart.  More 
than  one  of  them  said  to  me  that  such  an  achieve 
ment  was  a  stroke  of  genius  and  they  literally 
crowded  about  Roosevelt  eager  to  shake  his  hand  as 
if  he  had  been  a  kind  of  modern  Neptune.  It  was 
perfectly  manifest  that  their  respect  for  him,  and  for 
the  country  which  he  represented,  had  been  enor 
mously  increased  by  the  fact  that  he  had  done  what 
they,  confident  in  their  own  skill  as  seamen,  had 
predicted  that  neither  he  nor  they  nor  any  one  else 
could  do.  It  is  no  detraction  from  the  heroic  and 
splendid  performance  of  the  American  Navy  in  the 
European  war  to  believe,  as  I  do,  that  if  Mr. 
Roosevelt  had  been  President  in  1914,  and  had 
notified  the  Kaiser — as  he  certainly  would  have 
done — that  he  would  throw  the  American  Navy  into 
the  struggle  the  moment  the  foot  of  an  invading 
German  soldier  was  set  upon  the  soil  of  Belgium 
the  world  would  have  been  spared  much  of  the 
bloodshed  of  the  past  four  years  and  much  of  the 
chaos  of  the  present  day. 

But  Theodore  Roosevelt's  nationalism  was  not 
exclusive  of  internationalism ;  it  was,  rather,  com 
plementary  to  it.  He  believed  that  the  nations 
of  the  earth  could  not  and  should  not  live  together 
as  members  of  one  family  like  a  gigantic  Brook 
Farm  or  a  Oneida  Community  but  as  independent 


ii4    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

and  strongly  developed  families  in  a  well-organized 
neighbourhood.  He  used  to  say  that  a  man  who 
professes  to  love  all  other  families  as  much  as  he 
loves  his  own  is  likely  not  only  to  be  a  failure  as  a 
husband  and  father  but  also  to  be  an  undesirable 
neighbour.  "  Keep  your  eye  on  such  a  man,"  he 
once  remarked  to  me ;  "  he  is  not  only  foolish  but  he 
is  liable  to  be  dangerous."  Roosevelt  had  no 
patience  with  the  communistic  vagaries  of  the 
French  revolutionary  philosophers.  While  so 
cially  and  economically  he  was  much  more  demo 
cratic  than  Hamilton  or  even,  I  venture  to  think, 
than  Washington,  he  liked  them  better  and  trusted 
them  more  than  Jefferson  because  of  Jefferson's 
flirtations  with  the  unpractical  and  closet  idealists 
of  the  First  French  Republic. 

In  trying  to  interpret  Mr.  Roosevelt's  national 
ism  I  do  not  know  how  I  can  do  better  than  to 
quote  a  passage  from  his  "Life  of  Gouverneur 
Morris,"  in  the  American  Statesmen  Series.  It 
was  written  when  he  was  twenty-nine  years  old : 

Jefferson  led  the  Democrats  to  victory  only  when  he  had 
learned  to  acquiesce  thoroughly  in  some  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  Federalism,  and  the  government  of  himself  and 
his  successors  was  good  chiefly  in  so  far  as  it  followed  out 
the  theories  of  the  Hamiltonians;  while  Hamilton  and  the 
Federalists  fell  from  power  because  they  could  not  learn  the 
one  great  truth  taught  by  Jefferson — that  in  America  a 


STATESMANSHIP  115 

statesman  should  trust  the  people,  and  should  endeavour 
to  secure  to  each  man  all  possible  individual  liberty,  confi 
dent  that  he  will  use  it  aright.  The  old-school  Jeffersonian 
theorists  believed  in  a  "strong  people  and  a  weak  govern 
ment."  Lincoln  was  the  first  who  showed  how  a  strong  peo 
ple  might  have  a  strong  government  and  yet  remain  the 
freest  on  earth.  He  seized — half  unwittingly — all  that  was 
best  and  wisest  in  the  traditions  of  Federalism;  he  was  the 
true  successor  of  the  Federalist  leaders;  but  he]grafted  on  their 
system  a  profound  belief  that  the  great  heart  of  the  nation 
beat  for  truth,  honour,  and  liberty. 

This  estimate  of  Lincoln,  made  before  Roose 
velt  was  thirty  years  old,  became  stronger  and 
stronger  during  his  life.  He  had  a  kind  of  divine 
reverence  for  Lincoln.  He  once  told  me  that 
whenever  he  was  facing  a  puzzling  problem  of 
action  he  would  ask  himself:  "What  would  Lincoln 
have  done  in  such  a  case  ?"  —and  would  then  try  to 
shape  his  course  according  to  what  he  believed 
would  have  been  Lincoln's  example. 
.  During  the  Progressive  campaign  in  1912  Roose 
velt  made  a  speech  entitled  "The  New  National 
ism"  which  he  later  expounded  by  other  speeches 
afterward  collected  and  published  in  a  fairly  good- 
sized  volume.  These  pronouncements  at  once  at 
tracted  the  attention  of  the  country  and  created 
almost  a  furore  of  public  discussion.x  It  was  said 
by  his  opponents  that  the  theories  and  proposals 
in  these  speeches  were  subversive  of  the  Constitu- 


ii6    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

tion,  that  Roosevelt  wished  to  alter  the  very  struc 
ture  of  our  government.  His  proposals,  however, 
except  in  some  minor  details,  were  not  at  all  new  or 
radical  when  measured  by  his  utterances  and  acts 
over  a  long  period  of  years.  They  were  simply  a 
restatement,  in  more  elaborate  form,  of  the  thought 
expressed  in  the  foregoing  quotation  from  the  Life 
of  Morris.  He  wished  to  show  that  a  strong  cen 
tralized  government  is  not  only  compatible  with 
but  necessary  to  the  protection  of  popular  rights 
and  even-handed  justice  in  a  representative  democ 
racy.  Provided  that  the  people  have  the  free 
and  untrammelled  right  to  select  their  representa 
tives  at  the  ballot  box,  their  best  protection,  he 
believed,  lies  not  in  the  diffusion  but  in  the  con 
centration  of  power  coupled  with  direct  responsi 
bility  to  the  people  for  the  exercise  of  that  power. 
This  brings  me  logically  to  what  I  believe  was 
the  next  most  important  article  in  his  creed  of 
statesmanship : 

POLITICAL,  INDUSTRIAL,  AND  SOCIAL 
REFORM. — While  he  was  an  ardent  Nationalist 
and  believed  in  a  centralized  government  in  which 
the  ablest  men  were  given  great  responsibilities  and 
held  to  strict  accountability,  he  recognized  that  as 
efficiency  is  a  greater  power  for  good  so  corruption 


STATESMANSHIP  117 

is  a  greater  power  for  evil  in  a  strongly  centralized 
government.  He  therefore  endeavoured  not  only 
to  improve  the  standards  and  personnel  of  govern 
ment  officials  but,  by  what  was  literally  preaching 
and  exhorting,  to  arouse  a  sense  of  civic  responsi 
bility  among  the  great  body  of  citizens.  No  Presi 
dent,  probably,  has  issued  more  or  longer  Messages 
to  Congress,  but  while  these  papers  were  techni 
cally  addressed  to  Congress  they  were  really  ad 
dressed  to  the  whole  country.  He  often  spoke  of 
his  public  and  official  speeches  as  "preaching," 
and  he  more  than  once  said  that  he  put  what  he 
had  to  say  in  the  form  of  sermons  because  he  had 
such  a  "bully  pulpit."  The  result  was  that  he 
attracted  to  his  side  and  surrounded  himself  with 
official  colleagues  and  associates  who  had  the  same 
enthusiasm  and  the  same  high  standards  that  he 
himself  had. 

Political  service  in  office  took  on  a  different 
meaning  under  the  inspiration  of  his  theory  and 
practice.  I  think  it  not  unfair  to  say  that  forty 
years  ago  a  man  in  public  office,  particularly  of  a 
subordinate  character,  was  generally  regarded  with 
some  suspicion  by  the  so-called  "better  citizens" 
until  he  had  proved  himself  innocent.  It  was  not 
an  uncommon  assumption  that  every  man  in  pub 
lic  office  took  the  position  because  he  could  get  his 


iiS    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

hands  and  feet  in  the  public  trough.  This  at 
least  is  my  recollection  of  the  political  atmosphere 
in  1880  when  I  cast  my  first  presidential  vote  for 
Garfield.  It  was  at  this  date  that  Roosevelt  was 
elected  to  the  New  York  Legislature.  Roosevelt 
did  more  than  any  other  American,  in  my  judg 
ment,  to  modify  this  attitude  completely.  At  the 
close  of  his  administration  the  public  began  to  feel, 
as  it  ought  always  to  feel,  that  the  badge  of  public 
office  is  a  badge  of  respect;  it  began  to  regard 
Federal  officials  as  well  as  Federal  clerks  as  it  re 
gards  the  officers  and  enlisted  men  in  the  Army 
and  the  Navy. 

Certainly  this  was  what  Mr.  Roosevelt  wanted 
to  accomplish.  He  believed  that  a  man  or  a 
woman  who  works  for  the  Government  in  any  civil 
capacity  ought  to  be  actuated  by  the  same  patriotic 
motives  and  regard  the  service  with  the  same  pa 
triotic  respect  that  prevail  in  the  Army  and  the 
Navy.  No  President  has  done  more  than  did 
Roosevelt  to  discredit  and 'put  out  of  joint  the  old 
Jacksonian  theory  of  party  government  that  "To 
the  victors  belong  the  spoils." 

Along  with  this  work  of  political  reform  he 
undertook,  in  the  face  of  the  most  overwhelming 
difficulties,  the  reform  of  the  industrial  corpora 
tions.  He  did  not  believe,  to  quote  the  words  of 


©  Underwood  &  Underwood 

Theodore  Roosevelt  as  President .     Taken   at  his  desk   in 
the  White  House  during  his  second  term 


STATESMANSHIP  119 

President  Wilson,  that  "the  American  people  are 
living  a  life  of  economic  serfdom/'  but  he  was  con 
vinced  that  there  was  altogether  too  much  secret 
and  corrupt  meddling  with  politics  by  the  cor 
porations  for  their  own  selfish  benefit.  He  was  a 
believer  in  the  corporation  as  an  instrument  of  in 
dustry.  He  did  not  at  all  think  that  badness  is  an 
essential  element  of  bigness.  He  had  not  the  slight 
est  objection  to  the  corporations  doing  a  business  on 
a  gigantic  scale,  provided  that  these  operations  were 
honest,  above-board,  visible,  subject  to  proper  gov 
ernment  control,  and  based  on  a  just,  fair,  and  civi 
lized  treatment  both  of  employees  and  of  the  small 
investor.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  cordially  disliked 
the  attitude  of  the  extremists  who  seemed  to  feel 
that  the  corporations  were  enemies  of  society  with 
whom  there  could  be  no  possible  basis  of  associa 
tion. 

In  February,  1903,  while  he  was  struggling  to 
obtain  Federal  legislation  to  put  an  end  to  railway 
rebates,  he  wrote  me  a  long  letter  from  the  White 
House  which  contained  the  following  paragraph: 

No  respectable  railroad  or  respectable  shipping  business 
can  openly  object  to  the  Rebate  Bill;  and  the  Nelson  amend 
ment  and  the  bill  to  expedite  legislation,  to  both  of  which 
there  has  been  most  violent  opposition,  have  now  been  rather 
sullenly  acquiesced  in.  But  as  soon  as  the  business  interests 
showed  any  symptoms  of  acquiescence,  certain  individuals 


120    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

at  once  asserted  that  the  legislation  was  bad,  because  they 
did  not  want  it  unless  it  frightened  the  corporations. 

He  was  not  trying  to  destroy  the  corporations; 
he  was  not  even  trying  to  frighten  them;  he  was 
trying  to  cooperate  with  them  in  making  them  real 
servants  of  society.  His  differentiation  between 
"good"  trusts  and  "bad"  trusts  was  ridiculed  at 
the  time,  but  the  European  war  has  demonstrated 
the  soundness  of  the  principle.  Tremendous  or 
ganization  is  needed  to  accomplish  tremendous 
tasks.  The  organization  is  to  be  judged  by  its 
spirit,  its  aims,  and  its  accomplishments — not  by 
its  size. 

His  successful  attacks  upon  the  Standard  Oil 
Company  and  the  Sugar  Trust  were  not  made  be 
cause  these  organizations  were  big,  but  because  of 
certain  pernicious  practices.  He  could  not  tolerate 
what  one  of  his  colleagues,  Senator  Beveridge,  has 
defined  as  "invisible  government" — that  secret 
partnership  between  "big  business"  and  pliable 
politicians  which  grew  to  such  huge  proportions 
after  the  Civil  War  and  reached  its  climax  just 
about  the  time  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  became  Presi 
dent.  Under  his  administration  the  Federal  De 
partment  of  Commerce  and  Labour  was  estab 
lished  and  the  policy  of  government  regulation  of 
railways  was  greatly  strengthened.  He  was  one 


STATESMANSHIP  121 

of  the  first  public  men  in  this  country  to  espouse 
the  doctrine  of  industrial  democracy,  that  is  to  say, 
the  doctrine  that  the  workers  and  toilers  shall  not 
only  have  their  proper  share  of  the  profits  of  in 
dustry  but  also  some  voice  in  the  management  of 
industry.  In  this  connection  it  may  not  be  out  of 
place  for  me  to  quote  from  a  letter  that  Mr.  Roose 
velt  wrote  to  me  in  the  summer  of  1907: 

I  continually  get  points  from  the  Outlook.  If  you  do  not  ob 
ject,  I  am  going  to  work  into  one  of  my  speeches  your  ad 
mirable  little  thesis  on  adding  democracy  in  industry  to 
democracy  in  political  rights,  education,  and  religion.  You 
have  exactly  hit  upon  my  purpose,  but  you  phrase  my  pur 
pose  better  than  I  have  ever  phrased  it  myself. 

What  the  Outlook  had  said,  eliciting  this  com 
ment,  was  that  as  the  Reformation  and  the 
emigration  of  the  Puritans  to  the  Western  Hemi 
sphere  had  established  the  equal  rights  or  freedom 
of  men  in  their  religious  activities;  as  the  Amer 
ican  Revolution  and  the  Civil  War  had  established 
the  equal  rights  or  freedom  of  men  in  politics;  and 
as  the  establishment  of  the  American  public  school 
system  had  established  equal  rights  or  freedom  in 
education;  so  the  American  people,  perhaps  halt 
ingly  but  with  evident  purpose,  were  entering 
upon  a  moment  to  establish  equal  rights  or  freedom 
in  industry.  Equal  rights  in  religion  of  course 


122    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

does  not  mean  that  every  man  shall  be  a  bishop; 
in  politics,  that  every  man  shall  be  a  United  States 
senator;  or  in  education,  that  every  man  shall  be  a 
college  president.  But  it  does  mean  that  every  man 
shall  have  some  kind  of  a  voice  in  choosing  his 
bishop,  his  senator,  or  the  head  of  his  educational 
system.  So  the  workers  who  constitute  what  is 
called  labour  are  not  merely  to  be  paid  their  real 
share  of  the  total  product  of  labour,  but  they  are  to 
have  some  opportunity  to  determine  and  regulate 
the  conditions  under  which  they  shall  work.  It 
should  never  be  forgotten,  I  think,  that  Mr.  Roose 
velt  was  one  of  the  foremost  pioneers  in  the  move 
ment,  now  rapidly  accelerating,  to  establish  Indus 
trial  Democracy,  where  all  men  shall  have  equal 
rights  under  the  law  and  where  there  shall  be  no 
privileged  or  special  interests  exempt  from  the 
operations  of  the  law. 


CONSERVATION  OF  NATIONAL  RE 
SOURCES.— The  old  theory  with  regard  to  the 
natural  wealth  of  the  United  States  was  that  the 
forests  and  lumber,  the  water  power,  the  oil  wells, 
the  coal,  and  other  minerals  belong  to  the  private 
owner  of  the  land  to  exploit  and  sell  as  he  pleases 
for  private  profit.  Along  with  this  theory  ran  the 
policy  of  the  Government,  undoubtedly  desirable 


STATESMANSHIP  123 

and  beneficial  within  proper  limits,  of  giving  away 
vast  tracts  of  public  land  to  the  pioneer  who 
would  develop  the  natural  wealth  and  so  contribute 
to  the  general  welfare  of  the  country. 

This  system  led  not  only  to  the  concentration 
of  riches  in  private  hands  but  to  the  rapid  exhaus 
tion  of  certain  forms  of  national  wealth,  especially 
lumber-bearing  forests.  The  natural  desire  for 
quick  profits  was  proving  to  be  more  powerful  than 
the  cautionary  motive  of  preserving  our  capital 
resources  for  future  generations.  If  Mr.  Roose 
velt  did  not  invent  the  term  "Conservation  of 
National  Resources,"  he  was  the  first  great  leader 
in  this  country  to  espouse  and  establish  the  new 
theory  with  regard  to  our  national  wealth.  This 
theory  is  that  the  Government — acting  for  the 
people,  who  are  the  real  owners  of  public  prop 
erty — shall  permanently  retain  the  fee  in  public 
lands,  leaving  their  products  to  be  developed  by 
private  capital  under  leases,  which  are  limited  in 
their  duration  and  which  give  the  Government 
complete  power  to  regulate  the  industrial  opera 
tions  of  the  lessees. 

On  June  8,  1908,  Mr.  Roosevelt,  then  President, 
appointed  a  National  Conservation  Commission. 
This  commission  made  an  inventory  of  our  na 
tional  wealth,  which  was  published  in  1909.  It 


i24    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

was  the  first  inventory  of  its  kind  in  history.  Gif- 
ford  Pinchot,  an  intimate  personal  friend  and 
official  colleague  of  President  Roosevelt's,  was 
chairman  of  the  Commission  and  Mr.  Pinchot, 
with  the  approval  and  support  of  Roosevelt,  rap 
idly  became  the  public  representative  of  the  Con 
servation  movement.  The  country  has  by  no 
means  yet  succeeded  in  putting  an  end  to  the  ex 
traordinary  waste  of  its  public  wealth.  In  the 
Atlantic  Monthly  for  March,  1919,  Mr.  Arthur  D. 
Little,  an  accomplished  and  able  chemical  engineer 
of  Boston,  writes  as  follows: 

The  wastes  in  lumbering  are  proverbial,  and,  as  Mark 
Twain  said  about  the  weather,  we  all  talk  about  it,  but  noth 
ing  is  done.  With  a  total  annual  cut  of  forty  billion  feet, 
board-measure,  of  merchantable  lumber,  another  seventy 
billion  feet  are  wasted  in  the  field  and  at  the  mill.  In  the 
yellow-pine  belt  the  values  in  rosin,  turpentine,  ethyl  alco 
hol,  pine  oil,  tar,  charcoal,  and  paper-stock  lost  in  the  waste 
are  three  or  four  times  the  value  of  the  lumber  produced. 
Enough  yellow-pine  pulp-wood  is  consumed  in  burners,  or 
left  to  rot,  to  make  double  the  total  tonnage  of  paper  pro 
duced  in  the  United  States.  Meanwhile,  our  paper-makers 
memorialize  the  community  on  the  scarcity  of  paper-stock, 
and  pay  $18  a  cord  for  pulp-wood  which  they  might  buy  for 
$3.  It  takes  many  years  to  produce  a  crop  of  wood,  and 
wood-waste,  which  now  constitutes  from  one-half  to  two- 
thirds  of  the  entire  tree,  is  too  valuable  a  raw  material  to  be 
longer  regarded  merely  as  an  encumbrance,  except  by  an 
improvident  management. 

But  the  wastes  in  lumbering,  colossal  though  they  are  in 


STATESMANSHIP  125 

absolute  amount,  are  trivial  compared  to  the  losses  which 
our  estate  has  suffered,  and  still  endures,  from  forest  fires. 
The  French  properly  regard  as  a  national  calamity  the  de 
struction  of  perhaps  a  thousand  square  miles  of  their  fine 
forests  by  German  shells.  And  yet  the  photographs  that 
they  show  of  this  wreck  and  utter  demolition  may  be  repro 
duced  indefinitely  on  ten  million  acres  of  our  forest  lands, 
swept  each  year  by  equally  devastating  fire  for  which  our  own 
people  are  responsible.  You  have  doubtless  already  for 
gotten  that  forest  fire  which  last  autumn,  in  Minnesota, 
burned  over  an  area  half  as  large  again  as  Massachusetts, 
destroying  more  than  twenty-five  towns,  killing  four  hundred 
people,  and  leaving  thirteen  thousand  homeless. 

Mr.  Little  is  somewhat  beside  the  mark  in  say 
ing:  "We  all  talk  about  it  but  nothing  is  done." 
Something  has  been  done.  The  most  important 
work  of  President  Roosevelt  in  domestic  states 
manship,  next  to  his  injection  of  moral  ideas  and 
moral  impetus  into  administrative  politics,  was  his 
inauguration  and  fostering  of  Conservation.  I 
have  space  only  to  state  that  opinion  here.  The 
reader  who  is  interested  will  find  in  the  New  Inter 
national  Encyclopaedia  under  the  title  "Conserva 
tion"  the  best  brief  account,  which  has  come  under 
my  eye,  of  the  results  and  purposes  of  the  Conser 
vation  movement  inaugurated  by  Roosevelt  with 
the  aid  of  Gifford  Pinchot. 

Roosevelt  was  never  greatly  interested  in  mere 
questions  of  finance,  nor  in  economics  on  its  merely 
statistical  side.  But  the  moment  that  he  per- 


126    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ceived  the  human  relationships  of  an  economic 
question  he  threw  himself  into  the  problem  with 
his  fullest  energies.  It  was  the  human  aspect 
of  Conservation  that  aroused  his  championship. 
Some  other  things  that  he  did,  as  President,  were 
so  much  more  spectacular  that  there  is  danger  of 
his  leadership  in  Conservation  being  lost  sight  of. 
On  the  contrary,  it  deserves  the  fullest  study  of 
future  historians. 

The  abject  pacifism  and  the  wasteful  folly  of  the 
Chinese  with  regard  to  their  natural  resources 
stirred  him  about  equally  and  he  often  referred 
to  the  lack  of  patriotic  nationalism  on  the  one  hand, 
and  to  private  greed  in  exploiting  our  national  re 
sources  on  the  other  as  tendencies  which,  if  per 
sisted  in,  would  "Chinafy"  the  United  States.  He 
believed  that  the  incentives  of  private  profit  and  of 
brave  and  virile  pioneering  are  important  factors 
in  developing  American  character  and  American 
citizenship.  But  he  also  believed  that  they  should 
be  directed  not  by  the  whims  of  individuals  but  by 
the  common  and  united  determination  of  all  the 
people. 

COLONIAL  POLICY.— By  determining,  at  the 
close  of  the  Spanish  War,  that  Cuba  should  not  be 
taken  over  by  the  United  States— as  all  Europe 


STATESMANSHIP  127 

expected,  and  as  an  influential  section  of  his  party 
hoped  that  it  would  be — but  should  be  given  every 
opportunity  to  govern  itself,  he  established  the 
precedent  for  the  colonial  policy  which  the  Peace 
Conference  of  Paris  has  now  embodied  in  the  so- 
called  "mandatory"  principle,  namely,  that  colonies 
should  be  administered  as  a  trust  for  the  benefit  of 
the  inhabitants.  It  is  true  that  Cuba  was  set  on 
her  own  feet  during  the  Presidency  of  McKinley, 
but  when  under  the  Platt  Amendment  the  United 
States  intervened  in  Cuba  during  the  Roosevelt 
Administration  there  would  have  been  every  po 
litical  and  many  moral  justifications  for  our  annexa 
tion  of  the  island.  This  Roosevelt  would  not  con 
sent  to.  In  his  autobiography  he  refers  to  his 
Cuban  policy  as  follows : 

We  made  the  promise  to  give  Cuba  independence;  and 
we  kept  the  promise.  Leonard  Wood  was  left  in  as  governor 
for  two  or  three  years,  and  evolved  order  out  of  chaos,  rais 
ing  the  administration  of  the  island  to  a  level,  moral  and  ma 
terial,  which  it  had  never  before  achieved.  We  also,  by 
treaty,  gave  the  Cubans  substantial  advantages  in  our  mar 
kets.  Then  we  left  the  island,  turning  the  government 
over  to  its  own  people.  After  four  or  five  years  a  revolution 
broke  out,  during  my  administration,  and  we  again  had  to 
intervene  to  restore  order.  We  promptly  sent  thither  a  small 
army  of  pacification.  Under  General  Barry,  order  was  re 
stored  and  kept,  and  absolute  justice  was  done.  The  Amer 
ican  troops  were  then  withdrawn  and  the  Cubans  reestab 
lished  in  complete  possession  of  their  own  beautiful  island, 


128    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

and  they  are  in  possession  of  it  now.  There  are  plenty  of 
occasions  in  our  history  when  we  have  shown  weakness  or 
inefficiency,  and  some  occasions  when  we  have  not  been  as 
scrupulous  as  we  should  have  been  as  regards  the  rights  of 
others.  But  I  know  of  no  action  by  any  other  government 
in  relation  to  a  weaker  power  which  showed  such  disinter 
ested  efficiency  in  rendering  service  as  was  true  in  connection 
with  our  intervention  in  Cuba. 

In  numerous  speeches  and  addresses  he  expressed 
his  belief  in  a  strong  and  efficient  colonial  govern 
ment,  but  a  government  which  should  be  admin 
istered  for  the  benefit  of  the  colonial  people  and 
not  for  the  profit  of  the  people  at  home.  It  is 
worth  while  to  quote  on  this  subject  from  a  speech 
which  Mr.  Roosevelt  made  in  Christiania,  Norway, 
on  May  5,  1910.  The  occasion  was  a  public  dinner 
given  in  his  honour  on  the  evening  of  the  day  when 
the  celebration  was  held  in  recognition  of  the 
award  to  him  of  the  Nobel  Peace  Prize.  He  had 
made  his  set  and  carefully  prepared  speech  in  the 
afternoon.  At  this  dinner  he  spoke  unexpectedly 
and  wholly  extemporaneously,  but  the  address  was 
taken  down  stenographically.  In  the  course  of  it 
he  said: 

I  was  particularly  pleased  by  what  you  said  about  our 
course,  the  course  of  the  American  people,  in  connection 
with  the  Philippines  and  Cuba.  I  believe  that  we  have  the 
Cuban  Minister  here  with  us  to-night?  [A  voice:  "Yes."] 
Well,  then,  we  have  a  friend  who  can  check  off  what  I  am 


STATESMANSHIP  129 

going  to  say.  At  the  close  of  the  war  of  '98  we  found  our 
army  in  possession  of  Cuba,  and  man  after  man  among  the 
European  diplomats  of  the  old  school  said  to  me:  "Oh,  you 
will  never  go  out  of  Cuba.  You  said  you  would,  of  course, 
but  that  is  quite  understood;  nations  don't  expect  promises 
like  that  to  be  kept." 

As  soon  as  I  became  President,  I  said:  "Now  you  will  see 
that  the  promise  will  be  kept."  We  appointed  a  day  when 
we  would  leave  Cuba.  On  that  day  Cuba  began  its  existence 
as  an  independent  republic. 

Later  there  came  a  disaster,  there  came  a  revolution,  and 
we  were  obliged  to  land  troops  again,  while  I  was  President, 
and  then  the  same  gentlemen  with  whom  I  had  conversed 
before  said:  "Now  you  are  relieved  from  your  promise;  your 
promise  has  been  kept,  and  now  you  will  stay  in  Cuba."  I 
answered:  "No,  we  shall  not.  We  will  keep  the  promise  not 
only  in  the  letter  but  in  the  spirit.  We  will  stay  in  Cuba  to 
help  it  on  its  feet,  and  then  we  will  leave  the  island  in  better 
shape  to  maintain  its  permanent  independent  existence." 
And  before  I  left  the  Presidency  Cuba  resumed  its  career  as 
a  separate  republic,  holding  its  head  erect  as  a  sovereign  state 
among  the  other  nations  of  the  earth. 

All  that  our  people  want  is  just  exactly  what  the  Cuban 
people  themselves  want — that  is,  a  continuance  of  order 
within  the  island,  and  peace  and  prosperity,  so  that  there 
shall  be  no  shadow  of  an  excuse  for  any  outside  intervention. 

We  have  in  the  Philippines  a  people  mainly  Asiatic  in 
blood,  but  with  a  streak  of  European  blood  and  with  the 
traditions  of  European  culture,  so  that  their  ideals  are  largely 
the  ideals  of  Europe.  At  the  moment  when  we  entered  the 
islands  the  people  were  hopelessly  unable  to  stand  alone. 
If  we  had  abandoned  the  islands,  we  should  have  left  them  a 
prey  to  anarchy  for  some  months,  and  then  they  would  have 
been  seized  by  some  other  Power  ready  to  perform  the  task 
that  we  had  not  been  able  to  perform. 


130    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Now  I  hold  that  it  is  not  worth  while  being  a  big  nation 
if  you  cannot  do  a  big  task;  I  care  not  whether  that  task 
is  digging  the  Panama  Canal  or  handling  the  Philippines. 
In  the  Philippines  I  feel  that  the  day  will  ultimately  come 
when  the  Philippine  people  must  settle  for  themselves 
whether  they  wish  to  be  entirely  independent,  or  in  some 
shape  to  keep  up  a  connection  with  us.  The  day  has  not  yet 
come;  it  may  not  come  for  a  generation  or  two. 

One  of  the  greatest  friends  that  liberty  has  ever  had,  the 
great  British  statesman,  Burke,  said  on  one  occasion  that 
there  must  always  be  government,  and  that  if  there  is  not 
government  from  within,  then  it  must  be  supplied  from  with 
out.  A  child  has  to  be  governed  from  without,  because  it 
has  not  yet  grown  to  a  point  when  it  can  govern  itself  from 
within;  and  a  people  that  shows  itself  totally  unable  to  govern 
itself  from  within  must  expect  to  submit  to  more  or  less  of 
government  from  without,  because  it  cannot  continue  to 
exist  on  other  terms — indeed,  it  cannot  be  permitted  perma 
nently  to  exist  as  a  source  of  danger  to  other  nations. 

Our  aim  in  the  Philippines  is  to  train  the  people  so  that 
they  may  govern  themselves  from  within.  Until  they  have 
reached  this  point  they  cannot  have  self-government.  I  will 
never  advocate  self-government  for  a  people  so  long  as  their 
self-government  means  crime,  violence,  and  extortion,  corrup 
tion  within,  lawlessness  among  themselves  and  toward  others. 
If  that  is  what  self-government  means  to  any  people,  then 
they  ought  to  be  governed  by  others  until  they  can  do  better. 

In  respect  to  the  facts  that  I  have  stated  and  the 
views  that  I  have  quoted  from  Mr.  Roosevelt  him 
self,  is  it  not  a  reasonable  conclusion  to  say  that  for 
the  seven  years  of  his  administration  as  President 
he  developed  a  policy  of  statesmanship  quite  new 
in  the  history  of  the  United  States  ? 


STATESMANSHIP  131 

THE  RUSSO-JAPANESE  PEACE.— The 
Nobel  Peace  Prize  was  awarded  to  Theodore  Roose 
velt  for  his  acts  as  a  mediator  between  Russia  and 
Japan,  which  resulted  in  the  Treaty  of  Portsmouth 
and  the  ending  of  the  Russo-Japanese  War  in  1905. 
The  prize  consisted  of  a  gold  medal  and  forty  thou 
sand  dollars.  He  acknowledged  this  award  in  the 
formal  address  in  1910  at  Christiania  already  re 
ferred  to.  Officially  it  was  delivered  before  the 
Nobel  Prize  Committee,  but  actually,  it  was  a  pub 
lic  oration  spoken  in  the  National  Theatre  of 
Christiania  before  an  audience  of  two  or  three  thou 
sand  people.  His  subject  was:  "International 
Peace."  At  the  outset  he  said: 

• 

The  gold  medal  which  formed  part  of  the  prize  I  shall  al 
ways  keep,  and  I  shall  hand  it  on  to  my  children  as  a  precious 
heirloom.  --The' sum  of  money  provided  as  part  of  the  prize, 
by  the  wise  generosity  of  the  illustrious  founder  of  this  world- 
famous  prize  system,  I  did  not,  under  the  peculiar^  circum 
stances  of  the  case,  feel  at  liberty  to  keep.  I  think  it  emi 
nently  just  and  proper  that  in  most  cases  the  recipient  of  the 
prize  should  keep,  for  his  own  use,  the  prize  in  its  entirety. 
But  in  this  case,  while  I  did  not  act  officially  as  President  of 
the  United  States,  it  was  nevertheless  only  because  I  was 
President  that  I  was  enabled  to  act  at  all;  and  I  felt  that  the 
money  must  be  considered  as  having  been  given  me  in  trust 
for  the  United  States.  I  therefore  used  it  as  a  nucleus  for  a 
foundation  to  forward  the  cause  of  industrial  peace,  as  being 
well  within  the  general  purpose  of  your  committee;  for,  in 
our  complex  industrial  civilization  of  to-day,  the  peace  of 


i32    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

righteousness  and  justice,  the  only  kind  of  peace  worth 
having,  is  at  least  as  necessary  in  the  industrial  world  as  it 
is  among  nations. 

Like  most  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  acts  of  statesman 
ship  his  course  in  the  settlement  of  the  Russo-Japa 
nese  War  was  widely,  and  sometimes  acrimoniously, 
discussed  at  the  time.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  what  he 
did  was  a  great  and,  in  some  respects,  a  complicated 
achievement,  but  the  principles  that  he  followed 
were  simple,  natural,  and  based  upon  common  sense. 

In  September,  1908, 1  wrote  an  editorial  of  more 
than  ordinary  length  which  endeavoured  to  inter 
pret  the  genesis  and  results  of  the  Russo-Japanese 
peace  treaty.  This  editorial  was  questioned  at  the 
time.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  based  upon  per 
sonal  statements  made  to  me  by  President  Roosevelt, 
and  I  think  it  had  his  entire  approval.  The  Spring 
field  Republican,  an  avowed  opponent  of  President 
Roosevelt's  foreign  policy,  had  published  an  article 
in  which  it  said  that  skilful  Russian  diplomacy  had 
cunningly  manipulated  Roosevelt  so  that  he  had 
become  "Russia's  strongest  ally  in  forcing  the 
Japanese  to  accept  what  were  virtually  the  Russian 
terms  of  peace."  In  the  course  of  my  own  editorial 
comment  the  following  phrases  were  employed : 

Our  version  of  President  Roosevelt's  intervention  in  behalf 
of  peace  is  exactly  contrary  to  the  Kova\evsky-Republican 


STATESMANSHIP  133 

version.  The  desire  for  peace  was  not  imposed  upon  Japan, 
it  came  from  Japan;  Russia  did  not  at  once  see  an  opportunity 
of  employing  a  conference  for  the  purpose  of  turning  military 
disaster  into  a  diplomatic  and  financial  victory;  on  the  con 
trary,  the  idea  that  peace  was  essential  to  Russia's  future  wel 
fare  was  driven  into  the  minds  of  an  obstinate  bureaucracy 
only  by  the  patient  arguments  of  the  President.  This  view 
of  the  Portsmouth  Treaty,  in  our  judgment,  has  been  estab 
lished  by  public  records  and  by  the  processes  of  simple  logic; 
it  will  be  confirmed,  we  believe,  when  the  time  comes  for  the 
publication  of  the  diplomatic  correspondence  and  state 
papers.  By  the  intervention  of  the  President  not  only  did 
Japan  receive  what  it  was  wholly  wise  for  her  to  accept  and 
what  she  really  desired  to  obtain,  but  Russia  was  protected 
from  the  further  disaster  into  which  the  folly  of  her  bureau 
crats  and  the  double  dealing  of  her  diplomacy  would  have 
plunged  her. 

On  October  first,  the  President,  having  read  my 
editorial,  wrote  me  a  letter  from  the  White  House 
in  which  he  said: 

Properly  speaking,  there  are  no  "state  papers"  about  the 
Portsmouth  Treaty  on  this  side  of  the  water.  It  was  done 
on  my  private  initiative,  but  there  is  no  reason  why  you 
should  not  specifically  say  that  you  had  access  to  all  the 
original  documents  with  which  the  President  had  any  connec 
tion,  and  that  you  speak  with  full  knowledge. 

In  talking  with  me,  afterward,  Roosevelt  said: 
"As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  spite  of  their  great  naval 
and  military  victories,  the  Japanese  statesmen— 
not  the  Japanese  people — were  sagacious  and  far- 
seeing  enough  to  know  that  they  were  approaching 


i34    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  end  of  their  resources  of  both  men  and  material 
while  Russia's  resources  were  unlimited.  The 
Japanese  came  to  me  privately  and,  with  some  re 
luctance,  expressed  this  point  of  view  and  asked 
me  if  I  could  not  do  something.  I  said  I  would  try. 
I  went  to  the  Russians  and  pointed  out  the  eco 
nomic  and  political  folly  of  continuing  the  war  and 
asked  if  they  would  not  join  in  a  peace  conference 
with  the  Japanese  if  I  arranged  it.  They  finally 
said:  'Yes,  if  the  Japanese  will  consent,  but  we  do 
not  believe  they  will.  We  will  come,  however,  if 
you  can  persuade  them/  I  replied  that  I  would 
see  what  I  could  do,  and  [this  with  his  characteristic 
chuckle]  all  the  time  I  had  the  Japanese  request  in 
my  breeches'  pocket!" 

A  characteristic  incident  happened  at  the  first 
meeting  of  the  Russo-Japanese  conference  in  this 
country.  At  the  luncheon,  to  which  President 
Roosevelt  invited  the  representatives  of  both  na 
tions,  on  board  the  presidential  yacht  Mayflower, 
at  Oyster  Bay,  Mr.  Roosevelt  told  me  that  he  was 
somewhat  puzzled  what  to  do  about  the  delicate 
question  of  precedence.  "If  I  took  in  Count 
Witte,"  he  said,  "the  Japanese  would  be  offended; 
on  the  other  hand,  if  I  took  in  Baron  Komura  it 
would  displease  the  Russians,  so  when  luncheon 
was  announced  I  simply  said  'Gentlemen,  shall 


vood 


©  Underwood  &  Unde 

Peace  envoys  on  board  Mayflower,  August,  1905.  Count 
Witte,  Baron  Rosen,  President  Roosevelt,  Minister  Taka- 
hira  and  Baron  Komura 


Underwood  &  Underwood 


President  Roosevelt  at  Panama  inspecting  the  Canal  which 

'-he  took" 


STATESMANSHIP  135 

we  go  into  luncheon?';  and  we  all  walked  in  to 
gether,  pell-mell.  I  dare  say  both  Russians  and 
Japanese  were  somewhat  astounded  at  this  in 
formality,  but  they  probably  put  it  down  to  my 
American  inexperience  in  social  matters !" 

The  Russo-Japanese  Peace,  which  was  effected 
almost  solely  by  the  strength  of  Roosevelt's  in 
fluence  and  personality,  was  a  boon  to  the  two 
contestants,  for  it  saved  Russia  from  the  inevitable 
consequences  that  continued  persistence  in  stupid 
ity  and  folly  must  have  entailed  while  it  strength 
ened  Japan  in  her  determination  to  preserve  for 
herself  the  real  fruits  both  of  military  victory 
and  of  a  humane  and  sagacious  statesmanship. 
Moreover,  it  put  Roosevelt  himself  on  record  as 
an  advocate  of  justice  instead  of  belligerency  in 
international  relationships.  In  his  address  before 
the  Nobel  Prize  Committee  in  Christiania  on 
May  5,  1910,  he  said  on  this  subject: 

It  is  earnestly  to  be  hoped  that  the  various  governments 
of  Europe,  working  with  those  of  America  and  Asia,  shall  set 
themselves  seriously  to  the  task  of  devising  some  method 
which  will  accomplish  this  result.  [The  establishment  of  an 
international  supreme  court  of  the  world.]  If  I  may  venture 
the  suggestion,  it  would  be  well  for  the  statesmen  of  the 
world,  in  planning  for  the  erection  of  this  world  court,  to 
study  what  has  been  done  in  the  United  States  bytheSupreme 
Court.  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  notably  in  the  establishment  of  the  Supreme 


136    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Court  and  in  the  methods  adopted  for  securing  peace  and  good 
relations  among  and  between  the  different  states,  offers  cer 
tain  valuable  analogies  to  what  should  be  striven  for  in  order 
to  secure,  through  the  Hague  courts  and  conferences,  a 
species  of  world  federation  for  international  peace  and  jus 
tice.  .  .  . 

Something  should  be  done  as  soon  as  possible  to  check  the 
growth  of  armaments,  especially  naval  armaments,  by  inter 
national  agreement.  No  one  Power  could  or  should  act  by 
itself;  for  it  is  eminently  undesirable,  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  peace  of  righteousness,  that  a  Power  which  really  does 
believe  in  peace  should  place  itself  at  the  mercy  of  some  rival 
which  may,  at  bottom,  have  no  such  belief  and  no  intention 
of  acting  on  it.  But,  granted  sincerity  of  purpose,  the  Great 
Powers  of  the  world  should  find  no  insurmountable  difficulty 
in  reaching  an  agreement  which  would  put  an  end  to  the  pres 
ent  costly  and  growing  expenditure  on  naval  armaments.  .  .  . 

It  would  be  a  master  stroke  if  those  Great  Powers,  honestly 
bent  on  peace,  should  form  a  League  of  Peace,  not  only  to 
keep  the  peace  among  themselves,  but  to  prevent,  by  force  if 
necessary,  its  being  broken  by  others. 

In  new  and  wild  communities,  where  there  is  violence,  an 
honest  man  must  protect  himself;  and  until  other  means  of 
securing  his  safety  are  devised,  it  is  both  foolish  and  wicked 
to  persuade  him  to  surrender  his  arms  while  the  men  who  are 
dangerous  to  the  community  retain  theirs.  He  should  not 
renounce  the  right  to  protect  himself  by  his  own  efforts  until 
the  community  is  so  organized  that  it  can  effectively  relieve 
the  individual  of  the  duty  of  putting  down  violence.  So  it 
is  with  nations.  Each  nation  must  keep  well  prepared  to 
defend  itself  until  the  establishment  of  some  form  of  inter 
national  police  power,  competent  and  willing  to  prevent 
violence  as  between  nations.  .  .  . 

The  combination  might  at  first  be  only  to  secure  peace 
within  certain  definite  limits  and  certain  definite  conditions; 
but  the  ruler  or  statesman  who  should  bring  about  such  a 


STATESMANSHIP  137 

combination  would  have  earned  his  place  in  history  for  all 
time,  and  his  title  to  the  gratitude  of  all  mankind. 

In  this  statement,  made  nine  years  ago,  Roose 
velt  was  the  prophet  and  advocate  of  the  inter 
national  state  of  mind  that  has  been  produced  by 
the  World  War. 

THE  PANAMA  CANAL.— The  greatest  ma 
terial  contribution  that  Theodore  Roosevelt  made 
to  his  country,  to  his  time,  and  to  the  world,  was 
the  Panama  Canal.  That  canal  will  be  his  en 
during  monument,  and  its  name,  as  has  been  sug 
gested,  might  well  be  changed  to  "The  Roosevelt 
Canal."  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  enter  into  the 
details  of  its  history.  For  five  hundred  years 
the'project  had  been  discussed.  For  one  hundred 
years  England  had  thought  of — some  time — under 
taking  it.  The  French  did  undertake  it — and 
failed.  If  it  had  not  been  for  Roosevelt,  the  world 
would  have  gone  on  debating  and  arguing  about 
it  for  years  to  come. 

In  a  previous  chapter  I  have  quoted  his  phrase, 
now  known  around  the  world:  "I  took  Panama." 
In  those  three  laconic  words  he  means  that  he 
acted  where  others  for  years  had  failed  to  act. 
What  he  did  was  simply  to  seize  with  courage  and 
vigour  an  opportunity  that  presented  itself.  The 


i38    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

inhabitants  of  the  State  of  Panama  wanted  the 
canal,  and  they  seceded  from  the  Republic  of 
Colombia  in  order  to  give  the  United  States  an 
opportunity  to  build  it.  Everybody  is  satisfied, 
except  the  people  of  Colombia,  who  suffered  from 
the  greedy  proclivities  of  some  of  their  corrupt  poli 
ticians.  I  must  also  except  from  the  category  of 
satisfied  persons  some  members  of  the  Wilson  Ad 
ministration  who  cannot  bear  to  have  the  name  of 
Roosevelt  go  down  in  history,  in  connection  with 

e  Panama  Canal,  unblotted  and  undimmed. 

Roosevelt,  I  think,  felt  two  great  resentments 
against  President  Wilson.  The  first  and  most 
important  was  a  patriotic  one,  arising  from  the 
fact  that  Mr.  Wilson  opposed  by  word  and  act  the 
policy  of  preparedness  which  Roosevelt  felt  was 
essential  to  the  safety  of  our  national  life  during 
the  first  two  years  of  the  European  war.  The 
other  resentment  was  personal.  Mr.  Wilson  had 
proposed  that  the  United  States  should  pay  the 
Republic  of  Colombia  $25,000,000  as  a  reparation 
for  the  wrong  which  she  alleged  had  been  done  her 
in  the  building  of  the  Panama  Canal.  Mr.  Roose 
velt  felt  that  such  a  payment  would  be  nothing  but 
blackmail;  that  either  his  course  and  that  of  his 
administration  was  just  and  right — in  which  case 
Colombia  deserved  nothing;  or  that  Colombia  had 


STATESMANSHIP  139 

been  robbed — and  that  the  only  just  reparation, 
in  logic,  would  be  the  entire  cession  of  the  canal 
to  Colombia.  Moreover,  if  the  United  States  paid 
Colombia  $25,000,000,  it  would  be  an  acknowledg 
ment  of  crime,  and  a  petty  and  contemptible  com 
pounding  of  a  felony.  Of  course,  he  did  not  for  a 
moment  believe  that  any  crime  had  been  com 
mitted.  He  never  was  more  strenuous  than  when 
he  was  explaining  and  defending  the  action  he  took 
with  regard  to  Colombia  and  the  secession  of  Pan 
ama.  He  profoundly  believed  that  he  had  per 
formed  not  only  an  act  of  service  to  the  world  but 
an  act  of  public  justice. 

In  spite  of  his  deep  feeling,  his  irrepressible 
and  buoyant  humour  enabled  him  often  to  see 
the  comic  side  of  the  controversy.  He  once  said 
to  me  that,  in  a  Cabinet  meeting,  when  he  was 
reporting  his  executive  action — which  he  describes 
briefly  as  "the  taking  of  Panama" — and  appealing 
for  an  endorsement  of  its  legal  and  constitutional 
character,  one  of  the  secretaries — I  think  it  was 
Attorney-General  Knox — exclaimed  ironically :"  Oh, 
Mr.  President,  do  not  let  so  great  an  achievement 
suffer  from  any  taint  of  legality!" 

In  1914  I  happened  to  be  returning  from  Europe 
with  a  group  of  friends  on  the  Imperator — the 
steamer  in  which  Colonel  Roosevelt  was  crossing 


140    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

after  having  been  to  Spain,  to  attend  the  wedding 
of  his  son  Kermit,  and  to  London,  to  deliver  a 
lecture  before  the  Royal  Geographical  Society 
on  his  South  American  explorations.  The  United 
States  Minister  to  Colombia  under  the  Taft 
Administration  was  on  the  steamer  and  he  asked 
me  to  arrange  that  he  might  meet  Mr.  Roosevelt 
whom  he  (the  Minister),  with  an  incredible  opti 
mism,  hoped  to  persuade  to  take  a  favourable  view 
of  the  proposed  25,ooo,ooo-dollar  payment  to 
Colombia.  Mr.  Roosevelt  consented  to  see  the 
Minister.  The  interview,  at  which  I  was  present, 
was  a  thoroughly  lively  one.  The  next  day,  in 
describing  it  to  one  of  my  steamer  companions — 
Mr.  William  Hamlin  Childs,  later  intimately  asso 
ciated  with  him  in  Liberal  Republican  politics — 
Roosevelt  remarked:  "You  know,  Childs,  it  is  said 
that  I  started  a  revolution  in  Panama.  The  fact  is 
there  had  been  fifty  revolutions  in  Panama  from 
time  to  time,  but  while  I  was  President  I  kept  my 
foot  on  these  revolutions ;  so  that,  when  the  Panama 
Canal  situation  arose,  it  was  entirely  unnecessary 
for  me  to  start  a  revolution.  I  simply  lifted  my 
foot!" 

In  this  chapter  I  have  not  tried  to  give  a  chrono 
logical  history  of  Roosevelt's  statesmanship  nor 
to  interpret  it  in  the  terms  of  the  diplomatist  or 


STATESMANSHIP  141 

economist.  I  have  simply  attempted  to  show 
what  I  fully  believe,  that  both  the  aims  and 
the  achievements  of  his  statesmanship — some  of 
them  immortal  so  far  as  world  history  goes — 
had  their  source  in  his  intense  humanity.  Pom 
posity,  artificiality,  cunning,  secretiveness,  and 
selfishness  were  totally  foreign  to  him.  He  be 
lieved  that  statesmen  and  nations  should  meet 
and  conduct  their  affairs  on  exactly  the  same  plane 
as  that  upon  which  neighbours  in  a  community 
stand  in  their  relationship.  He  talked  to  ambas 
sadors  and  kings  as  one  man  talks  to  another. 
That  was  the  real  secret  of  his  power. 


CHAPTER  V 
FOREIGN  AFFAIRS 

IN  HIS  autobiography  Colonel  Roosevelt  says: 
"By  far  the  most  important  action  I  took  in 
foreign  affairs  during  the  time  I  was  President 
related  to  the  Panama  Canal.5' 

With  the  qualification:  "during  the  time  I  was 
President"  this  is  doubtless  true,  although  there 
are  three  things  that  he  did — one  while  he  was 
President,  and  two  after  his  retirement  from  that 
office — which  had  a  moral  influence  or  reaction 
upon  foreign  affairs  that  entitled  them  to  be  ranked 
very  close  to  the  Panama  achievement.  It  is  prob 
able  that  if  Roosevelt  could  read  this  statement  he 
would  question  it.  At  any  rate,  he  did  not  con 
sider  as  important  enough  to  mention  in  his  auto 
biography  the  actions  which  I  have  in  mind.  He 
performed  them  in  the  ordinary  course  of  the  day's 
work.  Nevertheless,  I  have  always  thought  they 
made  a  permanent — an  almost  incalculable — inv 
pression  upon  our  foreign  relations. 

The  first  of  these  achievements  was  the  remission 

of  the  Chinese  indemnity;  the  second  was  the 

142 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  143 

speech  he  made  at  the  Guildhall  in  London  in 
1910;  and  the  third  was  his  stimulating  address  to 
the  French  people  at  the  Sorbonne  in  Paris  in 
the  same  year. 

THE  CHINESE  INDEMNITY.— As  a  result 
of  the  Boxer  Rebellion  in  1900  the  United  States 
received  from  China  an  indemnity  of  about  twenty- 
five  million  dollars  for  the  damage  and  dangers 
to  American  lives  and  property.  The  payments 
were  being  regularly  made  by  China,  she  having 
accepted  the  indemnity  as  a  just  execution  of 
international  law. 

In  1906,  Dr.  Arthur  H.  Smith — long  an  American 
missionary,  resident  in  China — made  a  visit  to 
this  country.  He  knew  and  liked  the  Chinese, 
and  few  Europeans  or  Americans  have  become 
more  familiar  with  their  life,  literature,  customs, 
and  manners.  He  is  the  author  of  two  admirable 
books  on  modern  China:  "Chinese  Characteristics'* 
and  "Village  Life  in  China."  As  an  old-time 
reader  of  the  Outlook  he  came  to  our  office  to  enlist 
our  interest  in  a  plan,  regarding  the  Chinese  in 
demnity,  which  he  wished  to  bring  to  President 
Roosevelt's  attention. 

His  plan,  which  he  had  carefully  worked  out 
in  detail,  was  that  one  half  of  the  Boxer  indemnity, 


144    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

say  about  twelve  million  dollars,  should  be  given 
back  to  China  on  the  understanding  that  she  use 
the  money,  or  its  income,  for  sending  Chinese 
young  men  to  American  collegiate  institutions, 
and  for  educating  certain  other  young  Chinese 
in  American  institutions  in  China. 

His  point  of  view  was  not  that  of  the  conven 
tional  missionary.  It  was  really  that  of  the  states 
man.  He  said  that  when  he  first  went  to  China 
the  American  flag  was  seen  on  vessels  in  every 
harbour,  but  that  now  it  was  rarely  visible;  that 
America  ought  to  do  something  to  renew  her  in 
timate  economic,  industrial,  and  commercial  re 
lations  and  so  cement  the  political  friendship  which 
had  been  fostered  by  Secretary  Hay.  He  believed 
that  with  a  body  of  young  Chinese  being  graduated 
annually  from  American  institutions,  we  should 
finally  have  a  great  company  of  influential  men 
in  China  who  understood  American  ways  and 
sympathized  with  the  American  spirit;  that  no 
other  way  could  China  and  the  United  States  be 
brought  together  so  effectively  in  their  economic 
and  political  relationship. 

The  plan  made  a  strong  impression  upon  my 
father  and  myself,  and  my  father  wrote  to  the 
President  asking  whether  he  would  see  Dr.  Smith. 
Mr.  Roosevelt  replied  appointing  a  day  for  the 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  145 

meeting.  It  was  early  in  March,  1906 — I  think 
the  sixth.  My  father  was  unable  to  go  to  Wash 
ington,  so,  at  Roosevelt's  suggestion,  I  accompanied 
Dr.  Smith  and  was  present  at  the  interview 
which  took  place  in  the  Red  Room.  My  recol 
lection  is  that  we  first  lunched  with  the  President 
and  afterward  returned  for  a  longer  conference 
in  the  evening.  At  all  events,  Roosevelt  showed 
his  interest  by  giving  Dr.  Smith  and  myself  a  per 
sonal  interview  of  much  more  than  ordinary 
length,  and  the  plan,  in  complete  detail,  was  laid 
before  the  President  by  Dr.  Smith.  The  result 
of  that  conference  was  that,  the  following  year, 
the  remission  of  the  unpaid  portion  of  the  indem 
nity  was  authorized  and  the  money  that  would 
have  gone  to  the  United  States  was  devoted  by 
China  to  educational  purposes.  (The  complete 
record  may  be  found  in  House  Document  No.  1275 
of  the  second  session  of  the  Sixtieth  Congress.) 

Ten  years  after  this  visit  of  Dr.  Smith  to  the 
White  House  I  happened  to  be  seated  at  a  Prince 
ton  Faculty  Club  luncheon  beside  Dr.  Robert 
McNutt  McElroy,  who  had  just  been  selected  as 
the  first  American  exchange  professor  to  China,  and 
he  and  I  fell  into  conversation  about  Dr.  Smith's 
part  in  the  indemnity  remission.  Dr.  McElroy 
was  so  much  interested  that  he  expressed  a  desire 


146    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

to  relate  the  story  in  his  lectures  in  China.  I  asked 
him  not  to  do  so  until  I  had  verified  my  recollection 
of  the  incident  that  had  occurred  ten  years  before. 
I  accordingly  wrote  to  Mr.  Roosevelt  at  Oyster 
Bay  recalling  the  White  House  interview  which  I 
have  just  described  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  replied 
under  date  of  January  24, 1916,  as  follows: 

My  memory  agrees  with  yours  about  Dr.  Arthur  H.  Smith. 
I  had  forgotten  his  name;  but  I  know  that  it  was  through 
your  father  that  I  first  became  interested  in  using  that  in 
demnity  for  educational  purposes.  The  idea  was  suggested 
to  me  as  you  describe  it;  and  then  I  asked  Root  to  take  it  up 
and  put  it  in  operation. 

Of  course  the  remission  of  the  Boxer  indemnity 
established  Chinese  friendship  for  the  American 
people  on  the  firmest  kind  of  basis.  But  this  was 
not  the  only  effect  of  this  action  on  foreign  affairs. 
There  is  another  aspect  of  the  achievement  which 
seems  worth  bearing  in  mind. 

It  is  said  by  many  publicists  that  governments 
cannot  have  altruistic  qualities  and  motives.  In 
two  cases,  at  least,  the  history  of  the  United 
States  shows  that  governments  can,  in  practice, 
be  altruistic.  We  were  empowered  to  take  #25,- 
000,000  from  China  in  accordance  with  the  best 
standards  of  international  action  and  we  volun 
tarily  gave  up  half  that  sum  in  order  to  promote 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  147 

a  moral  idea.  We  took  Cuba,  a  rich  possession, 
in  the  course  of  a  war  which,  at  the  very  least, 
was  a  war  carried  on  in  accordance  with  common 
international  procedure.  Europe,  especially  Ger 
many,  said  it  was  cant  to  assert  that  we  made 
war  for  the  benefit  of  the  Cubans,  and  that  our 
chief  motive  was  to  gain  the  splendid  prize  of 
Cuba.  But  we  gave  Cuba  back  to  the  Cubans, 
only  asking  that  they  keep  it  in  order. 

If  there  are  in  history  any  other  two  similar 
instances  of  national  altruism,  I  do  not  know  of 
them.  These  two  historical  facts,  it  seems  to 
me,  should  be  kept  before  the  coming  generations 
in  their  studies  of  the  structure  of  government, 
not  in  order  that  we  may  plume  ourselves  upon 
our  virtue,  but  in  order  to  show  that  the  moral 
law  may  be  made  to  work  in  international  practice 
just  as  it  works  in  the  individual  practice  of  the 
citizens  of  a  community. 

These  two  acts  of  national  morals  are  in  a  very  real 
sense  the  acts  of  President  Roosevelt  and  a  product 
of  his  philosophy  of  statesmanship.  He  did  not 
merely  preach  about  national  morals  but  somehow 
or  other  he  got  national  things  done  on  a  distinctly 
moral  basis;  and  he  was  not  a  mollycoddle,  either! 

His  satisfaction  in  practical  altruism  appears 
in  the  following  exchange  of  notes  which  I  find 


i48    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

among  my  papers.    On  February  10,  1917, 1  wrote 
Roosevelt  as  follows: 

Everett  P.  Wheeler, who,  as  you  know,  is  an  old-line  Demo 
crat — and  therefore,  I  suppose,  naturally  one  of  your  critics — 
has  just  published  a  book  called  "Sixty  Years  of  American 
Life."  In  looking  it  over,  at  the  head  of  Chapter  XII,  which 
deals  with  New  York  City  politics,  I  find  the  following  quota 
tion  ascribed  to  you:  "Aggressive  fighting  for  the  right  is 
the  noblest  sport  the  world  knows."  Do  you  remember 
where  and  when  you  said  it  ?  It  is  delightful  to  think  of  doing 
good  as  a  high-class  sport. 

To  this  query  Roosevelt  replied: 

I  remember  perfectly  using  that  sentence,  but  I  cannot  tell 
you  the  exact  date.  It  was  when  I  was  Police  Commissioner 
and,  I  think,  in  connection  with  an  address  to  some  college 
boys. 

THE  GUILDHALL  SPEECH.—  Roosevelt  took 
a  sporting  chance  in  making  his  Guildhall  speech, 
which  had  a  more  far-reaching,  if  less  direct,  effect 
on  foreign  affairs  than  the  remission  of  the  Chinese 
indemnity.  s 

Of  all  the  public  addresses  that  Roosevelt  made 
during  his  tour  through  Egypt  and  Europe  in  the 
summer  of  1910 — a  trip  which  I  shall  describe  more 
fully  in  the  next  chapter — the  Guildhall  speech 
was,  in  my  judgment,  the  most  striking  and  nota 
ble.  The  occasion  was  the  ceremony  in  the  ancient 
and  noble  Guildhall,  one  of  the  most  perfect  Gothic 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  149 

interiors  in  England,  which  has  historical  associa 
tions  of  more  than  five  centuries,  when  he  was 
presented  by  the  Corporation  of  the  City  of 
London  (the  oldest  corporation  in  the  world)  with 
the  freedom  of  the  city.  In  this  speech  he  praised 
the  colonial  administration  of  Great  Britain  in 
Africa  and  frankly  criticized  the  course  of  the  Brit 
ish  Government  then  in  power  in  its  conduct  of  the 
protectorate  of  Egypt.  In  order  to  appreciate  the 
furore  that  this  speech  aroused,  his  criticism  must 
be  read  in  its  entirety: 

Now  as  to  Egypt.  It  would  not  be  worth  my  while  to 
speak  to  you  at  all,  nor  would  it  be  worth  your  while  to  listen, 
unless  on  condition  that  I  say  what  I  deeply  feel  ought  to  be 
said.  I  speak  as  an  outsider,  but  in  one  way  this  is  an  ad 
vantage,  for  I  speak  without  national  prejudice.  I  would 
not  talk  to  you  about  your  own  internal  affairs  here  at  home, 
but  you  are  so  very  busy  at  home  that  I  am  not  sure  whether 
you  realize  just  how  things  are,  in  some  places  at  least, 
abroad.  At  any  rate,  it  can  do  you  no  harm  to  hear  the  view 
of  one  who  has  actually  been  on  the  ground,  and  has  informa 
tion  at  first  hand;  of  one,  moreover,  who,  it  is  true,  is  a  sincere 
well-wisher  of  the  British  Empire,  but  who  is  not  English  by 
blood,  and  who  is  impelled  to  speak  mainly  because  of  his 
deep  concern  in  the  welfare  of  mankind  and  in  the  future  of 
civilization.  Remember  also  that  I  who  address  you  am  not 
only  an  American,  but  a  Radical,  a  real — not  a  mock — demo 
crat,  and  that  what  I  have  to  say  is  spoken  chiefly  because  I 
am  a  democrat,  a  man  who  feels  that  his  first  thought  is 
bound  to  be  the  welfare  of  the  masses  of  mankind,  and 
his  first  duty  to  war  against  violence  and  injustice  and 


i5o    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

wrong-doing,  wherever  found;  and  I  advise  you  only  in 
accordance  with  the  principles  on  which  I  have  myself  acted 
as  American  President  in  dealing  with  the  Philippines. 

In  Egypt  you  are  not  only  the  guardians  of  your  own  in 
terests;  you  are  also  the  guardians  of  the  interests  of  civiliza 
tion;  and  the  present  condition  of  affairs  in  Egypt  is  a  grave 
menace  to  both  your  empire  and  the  entire  civilized  world. 
You  have  given  Egypt  the  best  government  it  has  had  for  at 
least  two  thousand  years — probably  a  better  government 
than  it  has  ever  had  before;  for  never  in  history  has  the  poor 
man  in  Egypt — the  tiller  of  the  soil,  the  ordinary  labourer — 
been  treated  with  as  much  justice  and  mercy,  under  a  rule 
as  free  from  corruption  and  brutality,  as  during  the  last 
twenty-eight  years.  Yet  recent  events,  and  especially  what 
has  happened  in  connection  with  and  following  on  the  assas 
sination  of  Boutros  Pasha  three  months  ago,  have  shown 
that,  in  certain  vital  points,  you  have  erred;  and  it  is  for  you 
to  make  good  your  error.  It  has  been  an  error  proceeding 
from  the  effort  to  do  too  much  and  not  too  little  in  the  inter 
ests  of  the  Egyptians  themselves;  but  unfortunately  it  is 
necessary  for  all  of  us  who  have  to  do  with  uncivilized  peoples, 
and  especially  with  fanatical  peoples,  to  remember  that  in 
such  a  situation  as  yours  in  Egypt  weakness,  timidity,  and 
sentimentality  may  cause  even  more  far-reaching  harm  than 
violence  and  injustice.  Of  all  broken  reeds,  sentimentality 
is  the  most  broken  reed  on  which  righteousness  can  lean. 

In  Egypt  you  have  been  treating  all  religions  with  studied 
fairness  and  impartiality;  and  instead  of  gratefully  acknowl 
edging  this,  a  noisy  section  of  the  native  population  takes 
advantage  of  what  your  good  treatment  has  done  to  bring 
about  an  anti-foreign  movement,  a  movement  in  which,  as 
events  have  shown,  murder  on  a  large  or  a  small  scale  is 
expected  to  play  a  leading  part.  Boutros  Pasha  was  the 
best  and  most  competent  Egyptian  official,  a  steadfast  up 
holder  of  English  rule,  and  an  earnest  worker  for  the  welfare 
of  his  countrymen;  and  he  was  murdered  simply  and  solely 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  151 

because  of  these  facts,  and  because  he  did  his  duty  wisely, 
fearlessly,  and  uprightly.  The  attitude  of  the  so-called 
Egyptian  Nationalist  party  in  connection  with  this  murder 
has  shown  that  they  were  neither  desirous  nor  capable  of 
guaranteeing  even  that  primary  justice,  the  failure  to  supply 
which  makes  self-government  not  merely  an  empty  but  a 
noxious  farce.  Such  are  the  conditions;  and  where  the  effort 
made  by  your  officials  to  help  the  Egyptians  toward  self- 
government  is  taken  advantage  of  by  them,  not  to  make 
things  better,  not  to  help  their  country,  but  to  try  to  bring 
murderous  chaos  upon  the  land,  then  it  becomes  the  primary 
duty  of  whoever  is  responsible  for  the  government  in  Egypt 
to  establish  order,  and  to  take  whatever  measures  are  neces 
sary  to  that  end. 

It  was  with  this  primary  object  of  establishing  order  that 
you  went  into  Egypt  twenty-eight  years  ago;  and  the  chief 
and  ample  justification  for  your  presence  in  Egypt  was  this 
absolute  necessity  of  order  being  established  from  without, 
coupled  with  your  ability  and  willingness  to  establish  it. 
Now,  either  you  have  the  right  to  be  in  Egypt  or  you  have 
not;  either  it  is  or  it  is  not  your  duty  to  establish  and  keep 
order.  If  you  feel  that  you  have  not  the  right  to  be  in  Egypt, 
if  you  do  not  wish  to  establish  and  to  keep  order  there,  why, 
then,  by  all  means  get  out  of  Egypt.  If,  as  I  hope,  you  feel 
that  your  duty  to  civilized  mankind  and  your  fealty  to  your 
own  great  traditions  alike  bid  you  to  stay,  then  make  the  fact 
and  the  name  agree  and  show  that  you  are  ready  to  meet  in 
very  deed  the  responsibility  which  is  yours.  It  is  the  thing, 
not  the  form,  which  is  vital;  if  the  present  forms  of  govern 
ment  in  Egypt,  established  by  you  in  the  hope  that  they 
would  help  the  Egyptians  upward,  merely  serve  to  provoke 
and  permit  disorder,  then  it  is  for  you  to  alter  the  forms; 
for  if  you  stay  in  Egypt  it  is  your  first  duty  to  keep  0rder,  and, 
above  all  things,  also  to  punish  murder  and  to  bring  to  justice 
all  who  directly  or  indirectly  incite  others  to  commit  murder 
or  condone  the  crime  when  it  is  committed.  When  a  people 


152    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

treat  assassination  as  the  corner-stone  of  self-government, 
t  forfeits  all  right  to  be  treated  as  worthy  of  self-govern 
ment.  You  are  in  Egypt  for  several  purposes,  and  among 
them  one  of  the  greatest  is  the  benefit  of  the  Egyptian  people. 
You  saved  them  from  ruin  by  coming  in,  and  at  the  present 
moment,  if  they  are  not  governed  from  outside,  they  will 
again  sink  into  a  welter  of  chaos.  Some  nation  must  govern 
Egypt.  I  hope  and  believe  that  you  will  decide  that  it  is 
your  duty  to  be  that  nation. 


These  frank  words  aroused  more  opposition 
in  the  United  States  than  they  did  in  England. 
His  political  antagonists  at  home  attacked  him 
severely.  In  effect  they  said:  "This  is  just  like 
the  impetuous,  impulsive  Roosevelt.  On  an  oc 
casion  when  the  British  have  arranged  to  do  him 
honour  he  'butts  in'  and  presumes  to  tell  them 
how  to  run  their  own  government!" 

Whatever  else  the  speech  may  have  been,  it  was 
not  impetuous  and  impulsive.  It  was  the  pre 
meditated  result  of  careful,  considerate,  and  pain 
staking  preparation.  The  story  is  an  interesting 
one  and  throws  as  much  light  as  any  incident  in 
his  career  that  I  know  of  upon  his  methods  of 
thought  and  action,  and  I  shall  therefore  relate 
it  in  some  detail. 

Just  before  Roosevelt  arrived  at  Khartum  in 
March,  1910,  Boutros  Pasha,  the  Prime  Minister  — 
a  Copt,  that  is  an  Egyptian  Christian,  and  one  of 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  153 

the  best  native  officials  that  Egypt  has  ever  pro 
duced — was  openly  and  foully  assassinated  by  an 
agent  of  the  so-called  Egyptian  Nationalist  party. 
That  party  consisted  of  extreme  Radicals,  mostly 
young,  who  professed  to  wish  to  free  Egypt  from 
British  rule  and  to  establish  an  independent  repub 
lic.  They  were  the  "Sinn  Feiners"  of  the  Near  East. 
Perhaps  "Bolshevists"  of  the  Near  East  would  be 
a  better  term  to  apply  to  them,  although  the  word 
"Bolshevik"  had  not  yet  been  invented.  They 
were  both  dangerous  and  foolish;  dangerous,  be 
cause  they  proposed  to  establish  liberty  on  violence 
and  assassination,  and  foolish,  because  they  did 
not  seem  to  realize  that  if  the  British  were  driven 
out  of  Egypt  that  unhappy  country  would  im 
mediately  fall  back  into  the  hands  of  the  Turk 
who  did  not  care  a  fig  about  the  vague  and  gran 
diloquent  aspirations  of  the  half-baked  young 
Nationalists. 

The  assassination  of  Boutros  Pasha  caused 
almost  a  panic  among  the  civil  and  military  rep 
resentatives  of  Great  Britain  in  Egypt,  a  panic 
which  was  augmented  by  the  fact  that  the  Liberal 
Government  in  London  appeared  to  be  shilly 
shallying  about  the  matter  as  the  Gladstonian 
Government  in  the  eighties  shillyshallied  over  the 
Gordon  Relief  Expedition  which  resulted  in  the 


iS4    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

death  of  that  heroic  soldier  and  the  plunging  of 
the  Sudan  into  twelve  years  of  savagery.  Lord 
Cromer,  one  of  the  greatest  colonial  administrators 
in  British  history,  had  only  recently  retired  from 
the  position  of  British  diplomatic  agent  in  Egypt 
and  had  been  succeeded  by  Sir  Eldon  Gorst  who 
proved  to  be  wholly  incapable  of  dealing  with  the 
crisis. 

By  a  curious  coincidence  I  arrived  at  Khartum 
on  the  very  day,  March  fourteenth,  when  Roosevelt 
came  into  that  remarkable  tropical  city  from  the 
upper  reaches  of  the  Nile.  Khartum  is  a  veritable 
British  capital,  a  beautifully  appointed  modern 
city  in  the  midst  of  the  desert.  That  evening,  or 
possibly  the  following  evening,  a  dinner  was  given 
in  Roosevelt's  honour  at  the  palace  of  the  Gov 
ernor-General,  Sir  Reginald  Wingate.  Sir  Reginald 
was  absent  in  Cairo,  owing  to  a  temporary  illness, 
and  his  place,  both  as  Governor-General  and  as 
host,  was  filled  by  Slatin  Pasha,  the  famous  author 
of  "  Fire  and  Sword  in  the  Sudan,"  who  knew  as 
well  as  any  man  living  the  horrors  of  the  period 
when  Gordon  was  assassinated  and  Khartum  fell. 

The  subject  of  general  discussion  at  the  dinner, 
for  it  was  uppermost  in  everyone's  mind,  was  the 
murder  of  Boutros  Pasha.  Roosevelt  was  asked 
what  he  would  do.  He  said:  "It  is  very  simple. 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  155 

I  would  try  the  murderer  at  drumhead  court 
martial.  As  there  is  no  question  about  the  facts, 
for  his  own  faction  do  not  deny  the  assassination, 
he  would  be  found  guilty.  I  would  sentence  him  to 
be  taken  out  and  shot;  and  then  if  the  home  govern 
ment  cabled  me,  in  one  of  their  moments  of  vacil 
lation,  to  wait  a  little  while,  I  would  cable  in  reply: 
'Can't  wait;  the  assassin  has  been  tried  and  shot.' 
The  home  government  might  recall  me  or  impeach 
me  if  they  wanted  to,  but  that  assassin  would  have 
received  his  just  deserts." 

I  happened  to  be  sitting  next  to  Colonel  Asser, 
a  British  officer  who  held  a  very  high  and  import 
ant  post  under  the  Governor-General.  He  was  a 
tall,  blond,  red-cheeked  Englishman,  a  type  of  those 
splendid  men  who  in  the  awful  first  weeks  of  the 
Great  War  made  the  British  Expeditionary  Force 
in  Flanders — the  immortal  "Contemptibles" — the 
most  heroic  force  that  the  world  has  known  since 
the  days  of  Thermopylae.  When  Colonel  Roosevelt 
finished  speaking  Colonel  Asser  turned  to  me,  and, 
bringing  his  fist  down  on  the  palm  of  his  hand, 
said,  with  very  deep  feeling:  "By  heaven!  I 
wish  that  man  were  my  boss!"  Similar  senti 
ments  were  expressed  by  others  at  the  table  and 
Roosevelt  was  actually  implored  to  state  his 
views  of  the  necessity  of  strong  action  in  Egypt 


i$6    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

to  the  people  at  home;  home,  being,  of  course,  Lon 
don.  All  the  way  down  the  Nile  civil  and  military 
officers  urged  him  to  support  their  cause  when  he 
reached  London.  At  Cairo  he  was  asked  to  make 
a  public  address  before  the  University  of  Cairo. 

By  this  time  Egypt  was  literally  aflame  with  the 
threatening  controversy  excited  by  the  murder 
of  Boutros  Pasha.  A  few  of  the  more  timid  felt 
that  the  affair  should  be  allowed  to  " blow  over" — 
if  possible.  Their  feelings  were  like  those  of  a 
man  who  has  an  ulcerated  tooth  and  who  is  about 
equally  reluctant  either  to  let  the  tooth  stay  in 
or  to  go  to  the  dentist  and  have  it  out.  Some  of 
these  reluctant  ones  urged  Roosevelt  to  omit  all 
reference  to  the  murder  of  Boutros  Pasha  in  his 
speech  at  the  University.  He  replied:  " Gentle 
men,  I  am  perfectly  willing  not  to  speak  at  all, 
if  you  so  prefer,  but  if  I  do  speak  I  assure  you  I 
shall  speak  frankly  and  openly  about  this  assas 
sination  which  seems  to  me  to  strike  at  the  very 
roots  of  law,  order,  and  justice  in  Egypt/* 

He  spoke;  and  in  the  course  of  his  address  he 
said* 

All  good  men,  all  the  men  of  every  nation  whose  respect 
is  worth  having,  have  been  inexpressibly  shocked  by  the 
recent  assassination  of  Boutros  Pasha.  It  was  an  even 
greater  calamity  for  Egypt  than  it  was  a  wrong  to  the  in- 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  157 

dividual  himself.  The  type  of  man  which  turns  out  an 
assassin  is  a  type  possessing  all  the  qualities  most  alien  to 
good  citizenship — the  type  which  produces  poor  soldiers  in 
time  of  war  and  worse  citizens  in  time  of  peace.  Such  a  man 
stands  on  a  pinnacle  of  evil  infamy;  and  those  who  apologize 
for  or  condone  his  act;  those  who,  by  word  or  deed,  directly 
or  indirectly,  encourage  such  an  act  in  advance,  or  defend  it 
afterward,  occupy  the  same  bad  eminence. 

The  result  was  electrical.  He  was  cheered  to 
the  echo  by  his  audience.  His  fearlessness  strength 
ened  the  hands  of  those  officials  who  wanted  to  be 
backed  up  in  maintaining  law  and  order,  and  he 
was  again  urged  by  influential  and  important  men 
to  carry  this  message  of  upholding  the  moral  law, 
by  force  if  necessary,  to  the  home  government 
in  London.  Thanked  on  every  hand  for  the  help 
he  had  given  to  the  force  of  strong  and  good  gov 
ernment  in  Egypt  and  implored  on  every  hand  to 
present  the  needs  of  the  British  representatives 
in  Egypt  to  the  English  people,  he  consented  to  do 
so.  He  wrote  his  Guildhall  speech  during  his 
journey  of  six  or  eight  weeks  through  Europe. 
He  literally  brooded  over  it.  He  consulted  per 
sonal  friends  and  British  statesmen  about  it,  and 
before  it  was  delivered,  men  like  Lord  Cromer, 
Sir  Edward  Grey,  Mr.  Asquith,  and,  I  think,  Lord 
Kitchener,  knew  what  he  was  going  to  say.  He 
sought  and  accepted  suggestions  as  to  form  and 


1 58    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

phraseology.  This  I  know,  because  at  Roosevelt's 
request  I  read  the  speech  two  weeks  before  it  was 
delivered  and  ventured  some  minor  suggestions  of 
my  own. 

The  stage  setting  of  the  Guildhall  speech  was  a 
brilliant  one.  On  the  dais  at  one  end  of  the  hall 
sat  the  Lord  Mayor  and  the  Lady  Mayoress. 
The  special  guests  of  the  occasion  were  conducted 
by  ushers,  in  robes  and  carrying  maces,  down  a 
long  aisle,  flanked  with  spectators  on  either  side, 
and  up  the  steps  of  the  dais  where  they  were  pre 
sented.  Their  names  were  called  out  at  the  begin 
ning  of  the  aisle  and  the  audience  applauded  little 
or  much,  as  the  ushers  or  guests  moved  along, 
according  to  the  popularity  of  the  newcomer. 
Thus  John  Burns  and  A.  J.  Balfour  were  greeted 
with  enthusiastic  hand-clapping  and  cheers,  al 
though  they  belonged  of  course  to  opposite  parties. 
The  Bishop  of  London;  Lord  Cromer,  who  deserved 
to  be  called  the  maker  of  modern  Egypt;  Sargent, 
the  painter;  and  Sir  Edward  Grey,  Secretary  of 
State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  were  among  those  greeted 
in  this  way.  In  the  front  row  on  one  side  of  the 
dais  were  seated  the  Aldermen  of  the  City,  in  their 
red  robes;  and  various  officials,  in  wigs  and  gowns, 
lent  to  the  scene  an  aspect  curiously  antique  to  the 
American  eye. 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  159 

My  seat  was  on  the  dais,  from  which  I  could 
easily  observe  the  great  audience.  At  the  outset 
of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  address  it  was  obvious  that  the 
frankness  of  his  utterance,  his  characteristic  at 
titude  and  gestures,  and  the  pungent  quality  of 
his  oratory  startled  his  audience,  accustomed  to 
the  more  conventional  methods  of  public  speaking, 
but  he  soon  captured  and  carried  his  hearers  with 
him,  as  was  indicated  by  the  marks  of  approval 
printed  in  the  verbatim  report  of  the  speech  in 
the  London  Times.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say 
that  the  speech  for  a  week  or  more  was  the  talk 
of  England — in  clubs,  in  homes,  and  in  the  news 
papers.  There  was  some  criticism,  especially  in 
the  papers  supporting  the  Liberal  party  then 
in  power.  But  the  best  and  most  influential 
public  opinion,  while  recognizing  the  unconven- 
tionality  of  Roosevelt's  course,  heartily  approved 
of  both  the  matter  and  the  manner  of  the  speech. 
The  London  Times  said: 

Mr.  Roosevelt  has  reminded  us  in  the  most  frierrdly  way  of 
what  we  are  at  least  in  danger  of  forgetting,  and  no  impatience 
of  outside  criticism  ought  to  be  allowed  to  divert  us  from  con 
sidering  the  substantial  truth  of  his  words. 

The  Daily  Telegraph  (after  referring  to  Mr. 
Roosevelt  as  "a  practical  statesman  who  combines 


i6o    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

with  all  his  serious  force  a  famous  sense  of  hu 
mour")  expressed  the  opinion  that: 

His  candour  is  a  tonic  which  not  only  makes  plain  our 
immediate  duty  but  helps  us  to  do  it.  In  Egypt  as  in  India 
there  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  alternative  he  has  stated  so 
effectively:  we  must  govern  or  go;  and  we  have  no  intention 
of  going. 

The  Pall  Mall  Gazette's  view  was  that : 

Mr.  Roosevelt  delivered  a  great  and  memorable  speech — 
a  speech  that  will  be  read  and  pondered  over  throughout  the 
world. 

The  London  Spectator,  calling  the  speech  the 
chief  event  of  the  week,  remarked : 

Timid,  fussy,  and  pedantic  people  have  charged  Mr.  Roose 
velt  with  all  sorts  of  crimes  because  he  had  the  courage  to 
speak  out,  and  had  even  accused  him  of  unfriendliness  to  this 
country  because  of  his  criticism.  Happily  the  British  people 
as  a  whole  are  not  so  foolish.  Instinctively  they  have  recog 
nized  and  thoroughly  appreciated  the  good  feeling  of  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  speech.  .  .  .  His  speech  is  one  of  the  greatest 
compliments  ever  paid  to  a  people  by  a  statesman  of  another 
country.  .  .  .  He  has  told  us  something  useful  and 
practical  and  has  not  lost  himself  in  abstraction  and  plati 
tude.  .  .  .  We  thank  Mr.  Roosevelt  once  again  for 
giving  us  so  useful  a  reminder  of  our  duty. 

These  sentiments  of  approval  were  repeated 
in  a  great  number  of  letters  which  Mr.  Roosevelt 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  161 

received  from  men  and  women  in  all  walks  of  life. 
As  I  was  in  charge  of  his  affairs  at  the  time  this 
correspondence  came  under  my  eye.  There  were 
some  abusive  letters,  chiefly  anonymous,  but  the 
predominating  tone  of  the  correspondence  is 
fairly  illustrated  by  the  following: 

Allow  me,  an  old  colonist  in  his  eighty-fourth  year,  to  thank 
you  most  heartily  for  your  manly  address  at  the  Guildhall 
and  for  your  life  work  in  the  cause  of  humanity.  If  I  ever 
come  to  the  great  republic  I  shall  do  myself  the  honour  of 
seeking  an  audience  of  your  excellency.  I  may  do  so  on  my 
icoth  birthday!  With  best  wishes  and  profound  respect. 

The  envelope  of  this  letter  was  addressed:  "His 
Excellency  Govern-or-Go  Roosevelt."  That  the 
Daily  Telegraph  and  "the  man  in  the  street"  should 
independently  seize  upon  this  salient  point  of  the 
address — the  "govern-or-go" theory — is  significant. 

The  effect  of  the  Guildhall  speech  upon  the 
Government  was  quite  as  marked  as  upon  the 
people  at  large.  The  Asquith  Government  then 
in  power  was  inclined  to  be  anti-imperialistic, 
but  in  1911,  as  a  direct  result  of  the  public  senti 
ment  aroused  by  Roosevelt's  Guildhall  speech, 
the  Government  sent  Lord  Kitchener  to  Egypt 
as  Consul-General,  and  with  his  well-known  vigour 
of  action  he  suppressed  the  bolshevist  tendencies 
of  the  young  Nationalist  party  and  reestablished 


162    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Great  Britain's  authority  and  prestige.  If  some 
such  man  as  Kitchener  had  not  accomplished  this 
during  the  years  1911-14  it  is  highly  probable  that, 
taking  advantage  of  Egypt's  disorganization,  the 
Turks  and  Germans  might  have  captured  the 
Suez  Canal  thus  cutting  off  one  of  the  main  arteries 
of  British  military  existence  in  the  war.  It  may, 
therefore,  be  said  that  Roosevelt,  by  his  Guildhall 
speech,  made  a  great  contribution  to  the  final 
success  of  the  Allies. 

THE  SORBONNE  SPEECH.— On  his  way  to 
London,  from  Egypt,  Mr.  Roosevelt  passed 
through  Paris,  where  on  April  23,  1910,  he  gave 
a  lecture  at  the  Sorbonne,  by  invitation  of  the 
officials  of  the  University  of  Paris.  It  was  an 
appeal  for  the  highest  type  of  citizenship  based 
upon  the  simple  but  eternal  and  universally  recog 
nized  laws  of  individual  and  social  morality.  Said 
Mr.  Roosevelt: 


The  success  of  republics  like  yours  and  like  ours  means  the 
glory,  and  our  failure  the  despair,  of  mankind;  and  for  you 
and  for  us  the  question  of  the  quality  of  the  individual  citizen 
is  supreme.  .  .  .  I  speak  to  a  brilliant  assemblage;  I  speak 
in  a  great  university;  which  represents  the  flower  of  the  high 
est  intellectual  development;  I  pay  all  homage  to  intellect, 
and  to  elaborate  and  specialized  training  of  the  intellect; 
and  yet  I  know  I  shall  have  the  assent  of  all  of  you  present 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  163 

when  I  add  that  more  important  still  are  the  commonplace, 
every-day  qualities  and  virtues. 

With  his  characteristic  frankness,  Mr.  Roosevelt 
attacked  race  suicide,  in  speaking  to  a  nation  whose 
birth-rate  was  decreasing: 

Even  more  important  than  ability  to  work,  even  more  im 
portant  than  ability  to  fight  at  need,  is  it  to  remember  that 
the  chief  of  blessings  for  any  nation  is  that  it  shall  leave  its 
seed  to  inherit  the  land.  It  was  the  crown  of  blessings  in 
Biblical  times;  and  it  is  the  crown  of  blessings  now.  The 
greatest  of  all  curses  is  the  curse  of  sterility,  and  the  severest 
of  all  condemnations  should  be  that  visited  upon  wilful  ster 
ility.  The  first  essential  in  any  civilization  is  that  the  man 
and  the  woman  shall  be  father  and  mother  of  healthy  chil 
dren,  so  that  the  race  shall  increase  and  not  decrease. 

In  this  address  he  also  stated  succinctly  his 
position  with  regard  to  the  relations  of  labour  and 
capital: 

My  position  as  regards  the  moneyed  interests  can  be  put 
in  a  few  words.  In  every  civilized  society  property  rights 
must  be  carefully  safeguarded.  Ordinarily,  and  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases,  human  rights  and  property  rights  are 
fundamentally  and  in  the  long  run  identical;  but  when  it 
clearly  appears  that  there  is  a  real  conflict  between  them, 
human  rights  must  have  the  upper  hand,  for  property  belongs 
to  man  and  not  man  to  property. 

A  passage  which  elicited  enthusiastic  ap 
plause  was  the  following  in  which  he  paid  his 


164    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

tribute  to  the  man  who  strenuously  struggles  on 
against  all  obstacles : 

It  is  not  the  critic  who  counts;  not  the  man  who  points  out 
how  the  strong  man  stumbles  or  where  the  doer  of  deeds 
could  have  done  them  better.  The  credit  belongs  to  the 
man  who  is  actually  in  the  arena,  whose  face  is  marred  by  dust 
and  sweat  and  blood;  who  strives  valiantly;  who  errs,  and 
comes  short  again  and  again — because  there  is  no  effort  with 
out  error  and  shortcoming — but  who  does  actually  strive  to 
do  the  deeds;  who  knows  the  great  enthusiasms,  the  great 
devotions;  who  spends  himself  in  a  worthy  cause;  who,  at  the 
best,  knows  in  the  end  the  triumph  of  high  achievement,  and 
who  at  the  worst,  if  he  fails,  at  least  fails  while  daring  greatly, 
so  that  his  place  shall  never  be  with  those  cold  and  timid 
souls  who  know  neither  victory  nor  defeat. 

But  the  most  significant  passage  of  the  address, 
the  truth  of  which  has  been  more  than  substanti 
ated  by  the  chaos  of  Russian  bolshevism,  was  what 
he  had  to  say  about  the  danger  of  extreme  social 
ism  based  on  class  war: 

I  am  a  strong  individualist  by  personal  habit,  inheritance' 
and  conviction;  but  it  is  a  mere  matter  of  common  sense  to 
recognize  that  the  State,  the  community,  the  citizens  acting 
together,  can  do  a  number  of  things  better  than  if  they  were 
left  to  individual  action.  The  individualism  which  finds  its 
expression  in  the  abuse  of  physical  force  is  checked  very  early 
in  the  growth  of  civilization,  and  we  of  to-day  should,  in  our 
turn,  strive  to  shackle  or  destroy  that  individualism  which 
triumphs  by  greed  and  cunning,  which  exploits  the  weak  by 
craft  instead  of  ruling  them  by  brutality.  We  ought  to  go 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  165 

with  any  man  in  the  effort  to  bring  about  justice  and  the 
equality  of  opportunity;  to  turnthe  tool  user  more  and  more 
into  the  tool  owner;  to  shift  burdens  so  that  they  can  be  more 
equitably  borne.  The  deadening  effect  on  any  race  of  the 
adoption  of  a  logical  and  extreme  socialistic  system  could 
not  be  overstated;  it  would  spell  sheer  destruction;  it  would 
produce  grosser  wrong  and  outrage,  fouler  immorality,  than 
any  existing  system.  But  this  does  not  mean  that  we  may 
not  with  great  advantage  adopt  certain  of  the  principles  pro 
fessed  by  some  given  set  of  men  who  happen  to  call  them 
selves  Socialists;  to  be  afraid  to  do  so  would  be  to  make  a 
mark  of  weakness  on  our  part. 


The  effect  of  this  address  on  French  public 
opinion  was  remarkable.  Not  long  after  its  de 
livery  I  received  from  a  friend,  an  American 
military  officer  stationed  in  Paris,  a  letter  from 
which  I  quote  the  following  passage: 


I  find  that  Paris  is  still  everywhere  talking  of  Mr.  Roose 
velt.  It  was  a  thing  almost  without  precedent  that  this 
blase  city  kept  up  its  interest  in  him  without  abatement  for 
eight  days;  but  that  a  week  after  his  departure  should  still 
find  him  the  main  topic  of  conversation  is  a  fact  which  has 
undoubtedly  entered  into  Paris  history.  The  Temps,  one 
of  the  foremost  daily  newspapers  of  Paris,  has  had  fifty-seven 
thousand  copies  of  his  Sorbonne  address  printed  and  distrib 
uted  free  to  every  school-teacher  in  France  and  to  many 
other  persons.  The  socialist  or  revolutionary  groups  and 
press  had  made  preparations  for  a  monster  demonstration  on 
May  first.  Walls  we^e  placarded  with  incendiary  appeals 
and  their  press  was  full  of  calls  to  arms.  M.  Briand  [the 
Prime  Minister]  flatly  refused  to  allow  the  demonstration, 


166    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

and  gave  orders  accordingly  to  M.  Lepine  [the  Chief  of 
Police].  For  the  first  time  since  present  influences  have 
governed  France — certainly  the  first  time  in  fifteen  years — 
the  police  and  the  troops  were  authorized  to  use  their  arms 
in  self-defence. 

The  result  of  this  firmness  was  that  the  leaders  counter 
manded  the  demonstration,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
many  lives  were  saved  and  a  new  point  gained  in  the  possibil 
ity  of  governing  Paris  as  a  free  city,  yet  one  where  order 
must  be  preserved — votes  or  no  votes. 

Now  this  stiff  attitude  of  M.  Briand  and  the  Conseil  is 
freely  attributed,  in  intelligent  quarters,  to  Mr.  Roosevelt. 
French  people  say  it  is  a  repercussion  of  his  visit — of  his  Sor- 
bonne  lecture — and  that,  going  away,  he  left  in  the  minds  of 
these  people  some  of  that  intangible  spirit  of  his;  in  other 
words,  they  felt  what,  in  a  similar  emergency,  he  would  have 
felt,  and,  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives,  showed  a  disregard 
of  voters  when  they  were  bent  upon  mischief.  It  is  rather 
an  extraordinary  verdict,  but  it  has  seized  the  Parisian  im 
agination,  and  I,  for  one,  believe  it  is  correct. 

If  the  international  socialists  had  got  control 
of  Paris  in  1910  they  might  have  wielded  the  in 
fluence  which  they  sought  to  exert  in  the  early 
days  of  the  war  in  behalf  of  a  "Brest-Litovsk" 
peace  between  France  and  Germany.  Such  a 
peace  would  have  meant  the  extinction  of  France, 
and  so  it  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  Roosevelt 
contributed  personally  something  to  the  vigour  of 
the  French  people. 

While  Roosevelt  was  lying  ill  in  the  Roosevelt 
Hospital  in  the  city  of  New  York  in  November, 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  167 

1918,  with  what  at  the  time  was  supposed  to  be  a 
severe  attack  of  sciatica — an  illness  which  was 
followed  by  his  death  in  the  following  January— 
I  wrote  him  this  letter: 


Please  accept  this  word  of  sympathy  and  best  wishes. 
Some  years  ago  I  had  a  severe  attack  of  sciatica  which 
kept  me  in  bed  a  good  many  days;  in  fact,  it  -kept  me 
in  an  armchair  night  and  day  some  of  the  time  because 
I  could  not  lie  down,  so  I  know  what  the  discomfort  and 
pain  are. 

I  want  to  take  this  opportunity  also  of  sending  you  my 
congratulations.  For  I  think  your  leadership  has  had  very 
much  to  do  with  the  unconditional  surrender  of  Germany. 
Last  Friday  night  I  was  asked  to  speak  at  the  Men's  Club  of 
the  Church  of  the  Messiah  in  this  city  and  they  requested  me 
to  make  you  the  subject  of  my  talk.  I  told  them  something 
about  your  experience  in  Egypt  and  Europe  in  1910  and  said 
what  I  most  strongly  believe,  that  your  address  at  the  Sor- 
bonne — in  strengthening  the  supporters  of  law  and  order 
against  red  Bolshevism — and  your  address  in  Guildhall — 
urging  the  British  to  govern  or  go — contributed  directly 
to  the  success  of  those  two  governments  in  this  war.  If 
Great  Britain  had  allowed  Egypt  to  get  out  of  hand  instead 
of,  as  an  actual  result  of  your  Guildhall  speech,  sending  Kit 
chener  to  strengthen  the  feebleness  of  Sir  Eldon  Gorst,  the 
Turks  and  Germans  might  have  succeeded  in  their  invasion 
and  have  cut  off  the  Suez  Canal.  So  you  laid  the  ground  for 
preparedness  not  only  in  this  country  but  in  France  and 
England. 

I  know  it  was  a  disappointment  to  you  not  to  have 
an  actual  share  in  the  fighting  but  I  think  you  did  a  greater 
piece  of  work  in  preparing  the  battleground  and  the  battle 
spirit. 


i68    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 
In  reply  he  sent  me  this  note: 

That's  a  dear  letter  of  yours,  Lawrence.     I  thank  you  for 
it  and  I  appreciate  it  to  the  full. 

This  was  the  last  exchange  of  letters  I  had  with 
him. 


CHAPTER  VI 

A  MAN  OF  LETTERS 

THE  first  thing  that  strikes  the  ordinary  ob 
server  about  Roosevelt's  work  as  a  man  of 
letters  is  its  prodigious  volume.  The  list  of  books 
which  he  published — exclusive  of  pamphlets,  oc 
casional  addresses,  and  uncollected  magazine  ar 
ticles — numbers  at  least  thirty  separate  titles. 
His  "Life  of  Gouverneur  Morris"  is  about  fifty 
or  sixty  thousand  words  in  length;  his  " African 
Game  Trails"  about  two  hundred  thousand  words. 
It  is,  to  be  sure,  a  very  rough  estimate,  but  let 
us  suppose  that  his  books  average  seventy-five 
thousand  words.  This  means  that  he  wrote  two 
million  and  a  half  words  in  permanent  literary 
form. 

One  of  his  official  secretaries  has  said  that,  during 
his  governorship  and  Presidency,  Roosevelt  wrote 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  letters.  Suppose 
they  averaged  one  hundred  words  each — I  myself 
have  received  scores  from  him  that  were  very 
much  longer  than  that;  this  amounts  to  fifteen 

million  words  more  and  this  volume  of  material 

169 


i;o    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

covers  only  the  epistolary  side,  a  comparatively 
brief  part  of  his  active  career,  and  on  the  literary 
side  only  that  portion  of  his  writing  which  he 
himself  felt  might  be  put  into  permanent  form. 
*  A  man  who  does  two  thousand  words  of  creative 
work  day  in  and  day  out  for  every  working  day 
of  i  the  year  is  performing  a  portentous  job  from 
the  brain-worker's  point  of  view.  If  the  estimate 
that  Roosevelt  produced  eighteen  millions  of 
written  words  in  his  lifetime  is  at  all  reasonable, 
that  alone  would  represent  the  work  of  thirty  years 
of  the  lifetime  of  a  literary  man.  Roosevelt  had 
about  forty  years  of  active  work,  assuming  that 
he  began  his  productive  activity  when  he  published 
"The  Naval  War  of  1812"  not  long  after  he  had 
passed  his  twentieth  year.  Thus,  in  his  forty 
working  years  he  produced  as  a  writer  what  in 
amount,  at  least,  would  have  been  a  creditable 
fruitage  of  thirty  years*  labour  by  a  professional 
man  of  letters  who  did  nothing  else  but  write. 
Writing,  however,  was  merely  one  of  Roosevelt's 
avocations.  While  all  this  production  of  written 
words  was  going  on  he  was  also  soldiering,  explor 
ing,  travelling,  governing,  speaking,  studying,  and 
reading.  What  he  did,  therefore,  as  a  man  of  letters 
is,  in  the  first  place,  an  astounding  feat  of  physi 
cal  endurance. 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  171 

I  am  not  competent — nor  have  I  the  space — 
to  undertake  here  a  literary  criticism  of  his  standing 
as  a  man  of  letters.  The  very  fact  that  he  was  so 
profuse  in  his  writing  makes  some  of  it  diffuse. 
It  varies  very  much  in  merit,  but  it  must  be  remem 
bered  that  he  did  not  have  the  leisure  for  incubation, 
consideration,  and  revision  which  the  professional 
man  of  letters  requires.  Most  of  his  writing  was 
done  at  high  pressure  or  in  extraordinary  circum 
stances.  Father  Zahm,  the  well-known  scientist 
and  man  of  letters  in  the  Catholic  Church — who 
accompanied  Roosevelt  on  a  large  part  of  his  South 
American  explorations,  and  who  originally  pro 
posed  that  trip — thus  describes  his  two  methods 
of  work,  in  an  article  published  in  the  Outlook  not 
long  after  Roosevelt's  death: 

The  articles  intended  for  one  of  the  magazines  of  which  he 
was  a  contributor  were  dictated  to  his  secretary,  and  dictated 
for  the  most  part  immediately  after  the  occurrence  of  the 
events  described,  while  all  of  the  facts  were  still  fresh  in  his 
memory.  Descriptions  of  scenery  were  rarely  delayed  more 
than  one  day,  usually  not  more  than  a  few  hours.  As  soon 
as  he  returned  from  a  visit  to  a  museum,  a  cattle  ranch,  or  a 
public  gathering  of  any  kind  he  called  his  secretary,  and  we 
soon  heard  the  clicking  of  the  keys  of  the  typewriter.  And 
it  mattered  not  where  he  happened  to  be  at  the  time — on  a 
railway  train,  or  on  a  steamer,  or  in  a  hotel — it  was  all  the 
same.  The  work  had  to  be  done,  and  it  was  accomplished 
at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  .  .  ... 

The  articles  which  appeared  in  another  magazine  describ- 


172    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ing  his  hunting  experiences  in  Matto  Grosso,  unlike  those 
recounting  incidents  of  his  triumphal  march  through  other 
parts  of  South  America,  were  written  by  his  own  hand,  and 
often  with  the  expenditure  of  great  labour.  Most  people 
have  come  to  believe  that  because  Roosevelt  wrote  so  much — 
and  that  often  under  the  most  unfavourable  conditions — he 
must  therefore  have  dashed  off  his  articles  for  the  press  with 
little  or  no  effort.  Nothing  is  further  from  the  truth.  No 
one  was  more  painstaking  or  conscientious  than  Roosevelt 
was  in  his  literary  work.  I  had  frequent  evidence  of  this, 
especially  in  the  upper  Paraguay.  Here  it  often  happened 
that  he  received  different  and  contradictory  reports  regarding 
the  habits  of  certain  animals,  but  he  would  not  put  in  writing 
his  own  opinions  about  the  disputed  questions  until  he  had 
thoroughly  investigated  the  subject  and  had  satisfied  himself 
that  he  had  arrived  at  the  truth.  .  .  . 

Sometimes  his  observations  were  penned  after  he  had  re 
turned  from  a  long  and  tiresome  hunt  in  the  jungle.  Any 
other  man  would  have  thrown  himself  into  his  hammock  and 
taken  a  rest.  But  not  so  our  Nimrod.  He  would  refresh 
himself  by  a  plunge  into  a  stream,  if  there  was  one  near  by, 
or  by  a  copious  ablution  in  his  portable  bath,  and  then  he 
would  forthwith  seat  himself  at  a  folding  writing  table,  which 
he  always  carried  with  him,  and  set  down  the  experiences  of 
the  day  while  they  were  still  vividly  before  his  mind.  He 
would  thus  continue  to  write  for  an  hour  or  two,  or  even 
several  hours,  according  to  the  time  at  his  disposal.  .  .  . 

He  wrote  with  indelible  pencil,  and,  by  means  of  carbon 
paper,  three  copies  were  made  of  each  article.  This  was  as  a 
precaution  against  loss  of  the  manuscript  in  the  mails.  He 
did  not  aim  at  stylistic  effects,  and  never  made  any  attempt 
at  meretricious  adornment  of  his  thoughts.  Like  Cardinal 
Newman,  his  chief  effort  was  to  be  clear  and  to  express  him 
self  in  such  wise  that  no  one  could  mistake  the  meaning  he 
desired  to  convey.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  style  of  his 
hunting  articles  is  so  graphic  and  pellucid,  and  that  he  was 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  173 

able  to  make  his  readers  see  the  marvels  of  tropical  scenery 
as  he  saw  them  himself. 

Robert  Bridges,  the  editor  of  Scribner  s  Magazine 
— in  which  Roosevelt's  records  of  his  African  jour 
ney  were  first  published — also  describes  his  method 
of  work  as  a  writer: 

When  he  promised  a  manuscript  for  a  certain  date,  that 
promise  was  kept  absolutely,  no  matter  what  intervened. 

When  he  returned  from  the  Spanish-American  War  and 
landed  at  Montauk,  he  sent  word  to  the  magazine  that  he 
wanted  to  talk  about  his  proposed  story  of  "The  Rough 
Riders."  Just  before  he  started  on  that  expedition  he  had 
said  in  a  brief  interview:  "If  I  come  back,  you  shall  have  the 
first  chance  at  anything  I  write.3' 

It  was,  therefore,  on  the  first  afternoon  after  he  returned 
to  his  home  at  Oyster  Bay  that,  on  the  lawn  at  Sagamore 
Hill,  we  talked  over  the  book  which  developed  into  "The 
Rough  Riders."  It  was  all  perfectly  clear  in  the  Colonel's 
mind.  He  knew  the  grand  divisions  of  his  story,  although 
he  had  not  written  a  line.  There  were  to  be  six  articles,  and 
the  date  was  set  for  the  delivery  of  the  first  one  so  that  the 
serial  could  begin  in  the  magazine  promptly. 

Very  soon  he  was  nominated  for  Governor  of  New  York. 
I  said  to  him  one  day:  "I  suppose  this  will  interfere  with 
your  dates  for  The  Rough  Riders'?" 

"Not  at  all,"  he  replied;  "you  shall  have  the  various  chap 
ters  at  the  time  promised." 

As  everybody  knows,  he  made  a  vigorous  campaign  for 
Governor  of  New  York,  and  was  elected,  and  inaugurated  in 
the  following  January.  Notwithstanding  this  arduous  and 
exciting  time,  he  fulfilled  every  promise  and  the  book  was 
delivered  on  time. 

It  was  the  same  way  with  his  "Oliver  Cromwell,"  which 


174    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

was  written  while  he  was  Governor  of  New  York.  He  was 
a  busy  man,  but  his  literary  work  was  just  as  complete  as 
though  he  had  devoted  his  whole  time  to  it. 

When  he  was  President  he  sent  for  me,  and,  taking  me  into 
his  library,  opened  a  drawer  in  his  desk,  lifted  out  a  complete 
manuscript,  put  it  on  the  desk,  and  said  in  effect: 

"It  isn't  customary  for  Presidents  to  publish  a  book  during 
office,  but  I  am  going  to  publish  this  one." 

We  then  went  over  together  the  complete  manuscript  of 
"Outdoor  Pastimes  of  an  American  Hunter."  Some  of 
these  papers  had  been  written  before.  Other  chapters  were 
the  product  of  his  hunting  trips  in  Colorado  and  Louisiana 
while  President.  The  book  was  ready  for  the  printer,  title- 
page  and  all.  .  .  . 

To  him  the  making  of  a  book  was  a  delight.  He  knew  all 
the  machinery  of  it,  and  he  read  his  proofs  with  the  accuracy 
and  industry  of  an  expert. 

But  the  literary  work  that  he  best  enjoyed  was  writing  his 
"African  Game  Trails."  The  whole  book,  even  the  preface, 
was  written  by  his  own  hand,  word  for  word,  in  triplicate, 
in  the  very  heart  of  Africa.  One  of  the  men  who  was  with 
him  said  that  no  matter  how  arduous  the  day  in  the  hunting- 
field,  night  after  night  he  would  see  the  Colonel  seated  on  a 
camp-stool,  with  a  feeble  light  on  the  table,  writing  the  nar 
rative  of  his  adventures.  Chapter  by  chapter  this  narrative 
was  sent  by  runners  from  the  heart  of  Africa.  Two  copies 
were  despatched  at  different  times.  When  he  got  to  the 
headwaters  of  the  Nile  one  of  the  chapters  was  sent  from 
Nairobi  and  the  duplicate  was  sent  down  the  Nile  to  Cairo. 
These  blue  canvas  envelopes  often  arrived  much  battered  and 
stained,  but  never  did  a  single  chapter  miss. 


Brander   Matthews,  one  of  the  very   best   of 
American   contemporary  critics  of  literature,   in 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  175 

an  article  in  Munseys  Magazine  on  "Theodore 
Roosevelt  as  a  Man  of  Letters/'  has  said  that: 

Roosevelt's  style  is  firm  and  succulent;  and  its  excellence 
is  due  to  his  having  learned  the  lesson  of  the  masters  of  Eng 
lish.  He  wrote  well  because  he  had  read  widely  and  deeply, 
because  he  had  absorbed  good  literature  for  the  sheer  delight 
he  took  in  it.  Consciously  or  unconsciously  he  enriched  his 
vocabulary,  accumulating  a  store  of  strong  words  which  he 
made  flexible,  bending  them  to  do  his  bidding.  But  he  was 
never  bookish  in  his  diction;  he  never  went  in  quest  of  recon 
dite  vocables,  because  his  taste  was  refined,  and  because  he 
was  ever  seeking  to  be  "understanded  of  the  people." 

Of  Roosevelt's  autobiography,  Brander  Mat 
thews  adds  that,  while  it  has  a  lasting  character 
as  a  human  document,  it  is  open  to  the  criticism 
that  it  sounds  like  "an  improvisation."  It  was  an 
improvisation — at  least  in  part.  It  came  about  in 
this  way.  After  the  turmoil  of  the  Progressive 
campaign — in  which  the  partisan  passions  of  the 
country  were  deeply  stirred  and  which  resulted  in 
Roosevelt's  defeat — it  seemed  to  us  desirable,  both 
for  him  and  for  the  Outlook,  that  if  possible  his  pen 
should  take  a  vacation,  for  a  time  at  least,  from 
controversial  political  topics.  We  cast  about  to  see 
what  suggestion  we  could  make  to  him  that  might 
turn  his  attention  to  other  subjects  and  at  the  same 
time  give  him  the  opportunity  to  furnish  our 
readers  with  that  which  they  had  come  to  look 


1 76    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

for  from  him;  that  is  to  say,  contributions  on  politi 
cal,  social,  and  industrial  questions.  It  was  my 
brother,  I  think,  who  suggested  that  if  we  could 
get  him  to  write'  some  of  his  reminiscences  both 
objects  would  be  accomplished.  I  went  to  him, 
therefore,  and  asked  him  if  he  would  not  give  us 
some  chapters  of  autobiographical  reminiscences. 
He  demurred  at  first  very  decidedly.  "I  do  not 
want  to  write  about  myself/'  he  said.  "More 
over,  I  am  sure  Mrs.  Roosevelt  would  not  like  it." 
But  I  urged  him  to  let  me  come  down  to  Oyster 
Bay  and  interview  him  with  a  stenographer. 
"When  the  result  is  put  in  shape,"  I  said,  "you 
can  look  it  over  and  if  you  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt 
do  not  like  it  we  can  'kill'  it — to  use  the  technical 
phrase  of  a  newspaper  office — and  no  harm  is  done. 
If,  however,  the  result  is  satisfactory  we  can  try 
another  interview  and  continue  them  as  long  as 
you  have  the  patience  and  inclination  to  do  so." 
This  plan  struck  him  as  feasible,  and  I  met  him 
at  Sagamore  Hill  by  appointment.  The  stenog 
rapher  was  Frank  Harper  a  young  Englishman 
whom  we  had  engaged  to  be  Mr.  Roosevelt's  pri 
vate  secretary  and  who  had  travelled  with  us  in 
that  capacity  during  the  European  trip.  I  warned 
Harper  to  efface  himself  as  much  as  possible  so  that 
Roosevelt  would  be  as  little  conscious  as  we  could 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  177 

make  him  that  his  words  were  being  taken  down; 
and  I  also  instructed  him  to  make  a  record  of 
everything — questions,  answers,  interpolations, 
comments,  etc. — without  any  regard  to  whether 
his  notes  made  a  coherent  whole  or  not.  Roosevelt 
sat  down  with  me  in  his  study. 

"Now,  Mr.  Roosevelt,"  I  said,  "I  am  not  going 
to  ask  you  to  dictate  anything  to  Harper  to-day. 
I  am  simply  going  to  ask  you  some  questions,  get 
you  to  tell  me  some  of  the  stories  you  have  told 
me  from  time  to  time  about  your  early  life,  and 
Harper  will  take  the  notes  which  I  will  give  you 
later  as  memoranda  which  you  can  use  later  in  writ 
ing  your  recollections.  You  have  told  me  you 
were  a  sickly  boy  and  yet  from  the  time  I  first  knew 
you  you  have  been  an  extraordinarily  vigorous  and 
athletic  man.  What  kind  of  a  boyhood  and  educa 
tion  did  you  have  that  could  have  produced  such  a 
striking  result  out  of  such  an  inauspicious  begin 
ning?"  (I  have  said  elsewhere,  I  think,  that 
Roosevelt  was  one  of  the  most  delightful  table  talk 
ers  and  raconteurs  that  I  ever  listened  to.) 

My  question  interested  him,  and  he  began  to  tell 
something  about  his  boyhood,  his  father,  his 
mother,  his  bringing  up  in  the  Twentieth  Street 
home,  his  narrative,  fresh  and  extemporaneous, 
being  full  of  humour  and  anecdote.  Suddenly, 


178    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

catching  sight  of  Harper,  he  straightened  up  and 
began  to  dictate  in  a  more  formal  and  literary 
vein.  I  did  not  interrupt,  but  waited  until  he 
said  something,  in  the  course  of  what  had  now 
become  a  somewhat  formal  essay,  that  gave  me  a 
chance  to  ask  him  a  question  or  two,  reminding 
him,  perhaps,  of  some  anecdote  that  he  had  told 
me  previously.  Thus  diverting  him  from  what  had 
quite  apparently  become  a  self-conscious  and  awk 
ward  feeling  that  he  was  writing  a  formal  paper 
about  himself,  I  started  him  off  again,  forgetful  of 
the  stenographer,  on  a  current  of  reminiscentialtalk. 
In  this  way  the  afternoon  was  spent.  When 
Harper's  voluminous  notes  were  written  I  took 
them  to  my  own  home  and  worked  a  day  or  two 
upon  them,  striking  out  the  questions  and  ir 
relevant  remarks.  By  cutting  up  the  typewritten 
pages  and  pasting  them  together  again  I  adjusted 
the  sequence  and  chronology  of  the  story  (for  we 
had  skipped  in  our  conversation  from  boyhood 
to  Harvard  and  from  Harvard  back  to  boyhood 
again  as  my  questions  had  suggested  ideas  and 
recollections  to  Roosevelt).  This  was  done,  of 
course,  without  adding  a  single  word  to  anything 
he  had  said  or  changing  a  single  sentence.  I  had 
a  fair  copy  made  of  this  re-arrangement,  which 
formed  a  consecutive  narrative  and  composed  the 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  179 

first  chapter  of  his  autobiography,  and  submitted 
it  to  him.  He  was  satisfied  with  the  result  and 
needed  no  further  intervention  on  my  part.  With 
his  usual  quickness  of  perception  he  caught  the 
idea  which  I  was  very  desirous  of  getting  before 
him,  and  completed  the  autobiography  himself 
largely  on  the  lines  laid  down  in  the  first  chapter. 
He  occasionally  fell  into  the  argumentative  and 
essay  style  later  on  in  the  volume  and  I  think  some 
what  overloaded  it  with  appendices  and  documen 
tary  evidence.  It  has  always  seemed  to  me, 
however,  that  in  those  chapters  where  he  adhered 
to  what  Brander  Matthews  called  the  method  of 
"  improvisation "  he  recorded  recollections  of  a 
peculiar  charm,  both  from  a  personal  and  a  literary 
point  of  view. 

It  is  hard  to  say  whether  that  portion  of  his 
literary  work  which  was  dictated  or  that  which 
was  written  with  his  own  hand  was  done  with  the 
greater  care.  The  danger  of  dictation  always  is 
that  one  is  apt  to  be  verbose,  but  all  his  dictated 
work  he  always  went  over  very  carefully — after 
it  was  typed — correcting,  deleting,  and  interlining 
with  his  pen.  This  was  true  even  of  his  letters. 
To  the  latter  he  often  added  postscripts  in  his 
own  hand  which  not  infrequently  proved  to  be 
the  flavouring  kernel  of  the  entire  letter. 


i8o    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

As  an  illustration  of  the  variety  of  Roosevelt's 
work  and  of  the  appeal  which  he  made  to  his  fellows, 
it  may  be  recorded  that  Brander  Matthews  in 
timates  that  Roosevelt  ought  to  have  chosen  the 
writing  of  history  as  his  profession  for  "his  ulti 
mate  reputation  as  a  man  of  letters  will  most 
securely  rest  upon  his  stern  labours  as  a  historian"; 
while  Father  Zahm  thinks  that  a  great  scientist 
was  lost  when  he  entered  upon  a  political  career. 
Father  Zahm  says : 

Those  who  have  read  any  of  the  Colonel's  books  bearing 
on  natural  history — especially  his  recent  works:  "Life  His 
tories  of  African  Game  Animals'*  and  "Through  the  Brazilian 
Wilderness" — know  what  a  keen  and  trained  observer  he  was, 
and  how  not  even  the  most  trifling  peculiarities  of  form  and 
colour  escaped  his  quick  and  practised  eye.  But  the  general 
reader  is  not  aware  that  Colonel  Roosevelt's  first  love  was 
natural  history  and  not  politics,  and  that  it  was  only  an  un 
toward  combination  of  circumstances  that  prevented  him  from 
embracing  the  career  of  a  naturalist. 

I  am  not  sure  but  that  Father  Zahm  has  the 
weight  of  evidence  for  his  claim.  It  does  not  seem 
,to  me  that  Roosevelt's  historical  essays,  such  as 
those  which  form  the  basis  of  his  addresses  at  the 
University  of  Berlin  and  Oxford,  are  comparable 
in  style  or  charm,  or  even  in  originality,  with  some 
of  his  more  human  and  spontaneous  writing.  I 
do  not  know  where,  for  example,  one  can  find  a 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  181 

more  simple  and  yet  a  more  vivid  picture  of  sunset 
on  the  desert  than  is  found  in  the  account  he  wrote, 
in  three  articles,  of  a  western  trip  which  he  took 
in  1913.  His  articles  were  written  for  the  Outlook 
and,  so  far  as  I  know,  have  not  been  republished. 
The  sunset  passage  is  as  follows: 

During  the  afternoon  we  snogged  steadily  across  the  plain. 
At  one  place,  far  off  to  one  side,  we  saw  a  band  of  buffalo, 
and  between  them  and  us  a  herd  of  wild  donkeys.  Otherwise 
the  only  living  things  were  snakes  and  lizards.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  plain,  two  or  three  miles  from  a  high  wall  of  ver 
milion  cliffs,  we  stopped  for  the  night  at  a  little  stone  rest- 
house,  built  as  a  station  by  a  cow  outfit.  Here  there  were  big 
corrals,  and  a  pool  of  water  piped  down  by  the  cowmen  from 
a  spring  many  miles  distant.  On  the  sand  grew  the  usual 
desert  plants,  and  on  some  of  the  ridges  a  sparse  growth  of 
grass,  sufficient  for  the  night  feed  of  the  hardy  horses.  The 
little  stone  house  and  the  corrals  stood  out,  bare  and  desolate, 
on  the  empty  plain. 

Soon  after  we  reached  there  a  sand-storm  rose  and  blew  so 
violently  that  we  took  refuge  inside  the  house.  Then  the 
wind  died  down;  and  as  the  sun  sank  toward  the  horizon  we 
sauntered  off  through  the  hot,  still  evening.  There  were 
many  sidewinder  rattlesnakes.  We  killed  several  of  the  gray, 
flat-headed,  venomous  things;  as  we  slept  on  the  ground,  we 
were  glad  to  kill  as  many  as  possible.  Except  this  baleful 
life  there  was  little  save  the  sand  and  the  harsh,  scanty  vege 
tation. 

Across  the  lonely  wastes  the  sun  went  down.  The  sharply 
channelled  cliffs  turned  crimson  in  the  dying  light;  all  the 
heavens  flamed  ruby  red,  and  faded  to  a  hundred  dim  hues 
of  opal,  beryl,  and  amber,  pale  turquoise,  and  delicate  emer 
ald;  and  then  night  fell  and  darkness  shrouded  the  desert. 


182    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

His  "Winning  of  The  West,"  as  Brander  Mat 
thews  says,  is  probably  "an  abiding  contribution 
to  American  historical  literature/'  On  the  political 
side,  however,  I  think  his  "Naval  War  of  1812" 
and  his  "Life  of  Gouverneur  Morris"  ought  not 
to  be — and  will  not  be — forgotten.  He  himself 
had,  for  some  reason,  a  peculiar  interest  in  a 
volume:  "Hero  Tales  from  American  History" 
which  he  wrote  in  collaboration  with  Henry  Cabot 
Lodge.  In  1916  I  was  preparing  a  list,  for  a  cor 
respondent,  of  books  on  American  history  which 
could  be  read  by  a  young  layman  with  the  kind  of 
interest  which  such  readers  take  in  narrative  rather 
than  in  technical  studies.  I  wrote  to  Roosevelt 
telling  him  what  I  was  doing  and  saying  that  I 
had  put  in  Rhodes's  "Oxford  Lectures  on  the  Civil 
War"  (a  great  favourite  of  mine)  and  his  own 
"Naval  War  of  1812."  In  reply  he  said: 

I  would  certainly  put  in  Rhodes'  Oxford  Lectures  on  the 
Civil  War.  If  you  want  anything  from  me,  don't  take  the 
"War  of  1812,"  but  take  "Hero  Tales  from  American  His 
tory,"  which  Lodge  and  I  wrote  together. 

The  chapter  in  the  "Hero  Tales"  on  the  Death 
of  Stonewall  Jackson  affords  a  good  example  of 
Roosevelt's  strong  admiration  for  the  type  of  man 
who  is  an  upright  and  righteous  and  yet  hard- 
fighting  soldier. 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  183 

He  was  a  voracious  and  omnivorous  reader. 
It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  amount  of  Roose 
velt's  reading  but  it  must  have  been  phenomenally 
large  for  he  read  all  sorts  of  books,  modern  and 
ancient,  at  all  sorts  of  times  and  with  almost  un 
believable  rapidity.  In  the  life  of  Robert  Houdin, 
the  famous  French  conjuror  and  magician  of  the 
early  nineteenth  century  it  is  related  that  he  had  the 
gift,  developed  and  augmented  by  constant  practice, 
of  being  able  to  pass  through  an  elaborately  fur 
nished  room  and  then  to  describe  in  minute  detail 
the  various  articles  of  furniture  and  ornament 
which  it  contained.  His  eye  received  and  his  mind 
grasped  in  a  moment  or  two  impressions  which  it 
would  take  the  ordinary  man  half  an  hour  to 
tabulate. 

Roosevelt  had  this  gift  in  reading.  The  child 
laboriously  reads  syllable  by  syllable  or  word  by 
word;  the  practised  adult  reads  line  by  line;  Roose 
velt  read  almost,  page  by  page  and  yet  remembered 
what  he  read.  Mr.  Neil,  United  States  Commis 
sioner  of  Laoour,  during  Roosevelt's  administra 
tion  once  described  to  me  how  he  took  a  report  to 
the  President  on  which  he  had  spent  a  laborious 
month  of  preparation.  It  consisted  of  a  number 
of  typewritten  pages.  Roosevelt  took  the  report, 
fixed  his  eyes  upon  it — or  rather  his  eye,  for  one 


.. 


184    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT, 

had  been  so  damaged  in  boxing  that  for  many 
years  he  saw  only  dimly  with  it — turned  over  the 
sheets  about  as  steadily  and  rapidly  as  an  old- 
fashioned  Grandfather's  clock  ticks,  finished  the 
document  and  handed  it  back  to  the  Commissioner 
with  comments  and  suggestions  so  fresh  and  perti 
nent  that  it  was  quite  clear  that  he  had  not  only 
read  the  words  of  the  report  but  had  clearly  under 
stood  its  scope  and  significance.  "It  had  taken 
him  less  than  thirty  minutes,"  said  Mr.  Neil,  "to 
understand,  and  to  improve  by  adding  new  facts 
and  arguments,  the  treatment  of  a  subject  to  which 
I  had  devoted  hours  of  study." 

It  was  not  only  because  he  read  with  extraor 
dinary  speed  but  because  he  used  spare  minutes 
for  reading  that  his  range  was  so  wide. 

He  read  while  waiting  for  trains  and  for  people 
to  keep  appointments  and  when  driving  in  his  auto 
mobile  to  the  city.  I  have  seen  him  pick  up  a 
book  surrounded  by  a  roomful  of  talking  and  laugh 
ing  friends  and  in  a  moment  become  so  absorbed 
in  it  that  he  had  no  more  knowledge  of  what  was 
going  on  about  him  than  if  he  had  been  in  a  cloister 
cell.  During  the  railway  journey  from  Khartum 
to  Cairo  on  the  tour  of  1910,  described  more  fully 
in  a  later  chapter,  a  special  dinner  was  to  be  served 
one  evening  in  the  private  saloon  dining  car  placed 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  185 

at  Roosevelt's  disposal  by  the  Governor-General 
of  the  Sudan.  This  dinner  was  to  be  attended  by 
some  important  officials  and  other  guests,  who  had 
taken  the  train  at  one  of  the  stations  we^  passed 
through  and  were  to  leave  it  at  another  specified 
stopping-place.  It  was  therefore  essential  that  the 
company  should  assemble  at  the  table  promptly, 
but  when  dinner  was  announced  Mr.  Roosevelt  was 
nowhere  to  be  found.  I  searched  the  train  for 
him  and  finally  discovered  him  in  one  of  the  white 
enamelled  lavatories  with  its  door  half  open  where, 
standing  under  an  electric  light,  he  was  busily 
engaged  in  reading,  while  he  braced  himself  in  the 
angle  of  the  two  walls  against  the  swaying  motion 
of  the  train,  oblivious  to  time  and  surroundings. 
The  book  in  which  he  was  absorbed  was  Lecky's 
"History  of  Rationalism  in  Europe."  He  had 
chosen  this  peculiar  reading  room  both  because 
the  white  enamel  reflected  a  brilliant  light  and  he 
was  pretty  sure  of  uninterrupted  quiet.  This  was 
typical  of  the  way  in  which  he  seized  spare  mo 
ments  for  the  information  or  entertainment  that 
books  afford. 

The  fact,  however,  that  it  was  Lecky,  instead  of 
Mark  Twain  or  O.  Henry,  was  purely  fortuitous, 
for  he  was  no  pedant.  He  liked  novels  and  stories 
of  adventure  and  books  of  humour,  but  he  wanted 


1 86    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

them  to  be  written  by  men  of  intelligence  and  skil 
ful  workmanship.  Books  of  travel  and  explora 
tion  especially  appealed  to  him  although  he  was  not 
interested,  as  he  once  told  me,  in  mere  biography. 
At  the  Mohammedan  University  in  Cairo  which 
we  visited,  an  ancient  and  medieval  seat  of  learn 
ing,  established  in  a  spacious  building,  where  the 
chief  subject  of  study  appeared  to  be  the  Koran 
taught  to  classes  of  boys  and  men  squatting  upon 
their  haunches  on  the  floor  in  Oriental  fashion, 
Roosevelt  was  especially  interested  in  the  library. 
The  language  of  the  University  was  Arabic,  but 
we  had  with  us  a  Syrian  interpreter  who,  having 
been  educated  at  the  American  College  at  Beirut, 
spoke  English  fluently.  Roosevelt  was  surrounded 
by  an  interested  group  of  Mohammedan  teachers 
and  officials,  both  young  and  old.  He  had  not 
been  long  in  this  library  of  ancient  literature  when 
he  asked  through  the  interpreter  if  they  had  in 
their  collection  the  travels  of  Ibn  Batuta.  When 
that  name  was  mentioned  there  was  a  great  light 
ing  up  of  faces  and  a  great  scurrying  of  willing 
messengers,  who  presently  came  back  with  a  vol 
ume  printed  in  Arabic  which  Roosevelt  took  in  his 
hands  with  almost  devout  interest.  "Read  that," 
said  he  to  the  interpreter,  pointing  to  the  first  page, 
which  the  interpreter  proceeded  to  do,  with  a  dozen 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  187 

heads  bent  over  the  hieroglyphics.  "Yes,"  said 
Roosevelt,  as  the  reading  finished,  "that's  it.  Now 
doesn't  he  say  so-and-so  further  on?"  Where 
upon  the  interpreter  turned  over  the  pages  and, 
sure  enough,  Ibn  did  say  so-and-so  at  the  beginning 
of  the  next  chapter,  to  the  delighted  surprise  of  the 
Arab  group  surrounding  us  who  were  literally  over 
joyed  to  find  that  the  famous  visitor  from  the  West 
knew  one  of  their  great  authors.  When  we  went 
out  Roosevelt  explained  to  me  that  Ibn  Batuta 
was  the  Arabian  Marco  Polo  who  made  a  voyage 
around  Africa  in  the  fourteenth  century  and  left 
an  account  of  his  great  adventure  in  the  volume 
we  had  just  been  looking  at.  Roosevelt  had  read 
it  many  years  before  in  a  French  translation  and 
had  remembered  it  with  such  accuracy  that  he 
could  point  out  a  specific  passage  not,  of  course,  in 
the  Arabic  text,  but  from  the  context  as  translated 
by  the  interpreter. 

He  had  a  human  interest  in  universities  although 
he  was  not  in  the  slightest  degree  academic,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  he  had  received  as  many 
academic  honours  as  any  man  of  his  time,  including 
the  greatest  one  that  can  be  conferred  upon  a 
modern — that  of  being  created  a  D.  C.  L.  by 
Oxford.  But  when  universities  did  things  that 
seemed  to  him  contrary  to  social  morals  he  had  little 


1 88    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

use  for  them.  He  once  wrote  me  a  letter  of  outraged 
protest  when  Columbia  and  Yale  had  paid  marked 
distinction  to  two  American  journalists  who,  he 
thought,  had  exercised  a  sinister  influence  upon 
American  life.  But  after  he  had  let  off  his  steam 
of  vigorous  criticism,  he  cheered  himself,  as  he 
often  did,  by  a  quizzical  comment:  "Universities 
are  middling  queer  creatures,  aren't  they!"  was 
his  conclusion  of  the  matter. 

Unless  the  literature  was  the  fiction  of  adventure 
or  of  humour  Roosevelt  chiefly  got  either  social 
or  industrial  suggestions  and  inspirations  out  of  his 
reading.  This  aspect  of  his  work  as  a  man  of 
letters  is  shown  in  a  communication  I  received  from 
him  while  he  was  in  Africa  in  1909-1910.  It  was 
one  of  the  letters  written  in  his  own  hand  with 
indelible  pencil. 

Naivasha,  October  2ist. 

If  President  Eliot's  "List  of  Best  Books"  is  complete,  will 
you  send  it  to  me?  If  I  am  able  Yd  like  to  write  something 
on  it;  I  don't  believe  in  a  list  of  "100"  or  "25"  "best"  books, 
because  there  are  many  thousands  which  may  be  "best"  ac 
cording  to  the  country,  the  time,  the  condition,  the  reader; 
but  I  do  believe  in  "a"  25  to  100  or  any  other  number  of 
"good"  books,  each  such  list  being  merely  complementary 
to  and  not  a  substitute  for  many  other  similar  lists.  The 
books  in  my  pigskin  library  on  this  hunt  are  good;  they  are 
no  better  than  any  one  of  the  totally  different  sets  I  took  on 
each  of  my  last  three  hunting  trips,  except  that  I  have  a 
longer  list  for  the  longer  trip. 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  189 

I  liked  Kennan's  article  on  what  I  said  about  Tolstoi — I 
like  everything  that  he  writes! — and  am  in  fundamental 
agreement  with  what  he  says,  especially  in  his  unsparing 
condemnation  of  the  cruel,  ruthless,  bureaucratic  tyranny 
under  which  Russia  lies  in  festering  misery.  But  there  are 
one  or  two  points  on  which  I  should  like  to  give  reasons  for 
what  I  said;  if  you  care  to  you  can  send  this  to  him. 

First  as  to  Tolstoi's  immorality.  Have  you  ever  read  his 
"  Kreutzer  Sonata"  (if  that's  the  way  to  spell  it)  ?  I  read  it, 
or  rather  as  much  of  it  as  was  necessary  to  a  pathological 
diagnosis.  The  man  who  wrote  that  was  a  sexual  and  a 
moral  pervert.  It  is  as  unhealthy  a  book,  as  vicious  in  its 
teaching  to  the  young,  as  Elinor  Glyn's  "Three  Weeks"  or 
any  other  piece  of  pornographic  literature — for  I  need  hardly 
say  that  the  worst  pornographic  literature  is  that  which,  with 
conscious  or  only  half-conscious  hypocrisy,  calls  itself  by 
some  other  name;  some  of  the  very  vilest  of  such  books  are 
often  written  under  the  pretense  of  being  in  the  interests  of 
social  or  hygienic  reform.  In  your  father's  delightful  Vesper 
Sermons  was  one  the  other  day  on  the  Song  of  Solomon, 
which  dealt  with  the  love  of  married  lovers  in  a  spirit  which 
I  believe  to  be  as  true  as  it  is  lofty.  I  think  that  the  love  of 
the  really  happy  husband  and  wife — not  purged  of  passion, 
but  with  passion  heatened  to  a  white  heat  of  intensity  and 
purity  and  tenderness  and  consideration,  and  with  many 
another  feeling  added  thereto — is  the  loftiest  and  most  ennob 
ling  influence  thatcomes  intothe  life  of  anymanorwoman,even 
loftier  and  more  ennobling  than  wise  and  tender  love  for  chil 
dren.  The  cheapest,  most  degrading,  and  most  repulsive  cy 
nicism  is  that  which  laughs  at,  or  describes  as  degraded,  this 
relation.  Now  the  "  Kreutzer  Sonata"  has,  as  its  theme,  that 
this  relation  is  bestial  and  repellent,  and  its  whole  purpose  is  to 
paint  the  love  of  husband  and  wife  as  loving  exactly  the  same 
as  the  squalid  and  loathsome  intimacy  between  a  rake  and  a 
prostitute.  When  that  book  appeared  it  seemed  to  me  to  re 
veal,  as  by  a  flash,  the  strange  hidden  perversion  of  morals 


190    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

which  has  made  Tolstoi  in  his  professedly  moral  writings,  as 
distinguished  from  his  really  far  more  moral  novels,  inveigh 
against  all  the  relations  of  man  and  woman  as  if  the  highest 
and  most  ennobling  and  the  lowest  and  most  depraved  stood 
on  the  same  plane.  No  greater  wrong  can  be  done  humanity 
than  to  inculcate  such  doctrine;  at  its  best  it  makes  the  wife 
feel  that  she  ought  to  regard  herself  as  on  a  par  with  a  pros 
titute;  at  its  worst  it  enables  the  "man  swine"  to  say  that, 
after  all,  he  is  not  a  bit  worse  than  his  most  upright  neighbour. 
How  can  there  be  more  revolting  and  monstrous  teaching? 

Now  about  hypocrisy.  If  there  is  one  thing  upon  which 
we  should  insist  in  writer  and  talker,  but  above  all  in  pro 
fessed  prophet  and  reformer,  it  is  that  he  shall  make  his  words 
measurably  good  (it  is  not  in  human  nature  completely  to 
realize  an  ideal)  by  his  deeds.  I  believe  that  the  root-vice 
in  our  political  life  is  the  demand  by  part  of  the  public  that  a 
candidate  shall  make  impossible  promises,  and  the  grin  of 
cynical  amusement  and  contempt  with  which  another  portion 
of  the  public  regards  his  breaking  even  the  promises  he  could 
keep;  and  one  attitude  is  as  bad  as  the  other.  As  it  is  with 
politicians,  so  it  is  with  philosophers.  I  think  Rousseau  did 
much  good  by  some  of  the  principles  he  advocated;  and  more 
harm  because  he  taught  people  by  his  actions  to  regard  the 
enunciation  of  lofty  aspirations  as  a  substitute  for  lofty  deeds 
and  indeed  as  an  atonement  for  a  life  that  gave  the  lie  to  the 
aspirations.  Mr.  Kennan  quotes  Tolstoi's  words  as  proofs 
of  repentance.  Repentance  must  be  shown  by  deeds,  not 
words.  One  lapse  is  quite  pardonable;  but  persistence  in 
doing  one  thing  while  preaching  another  is  not  pardonable. 
It  seems  to  me  that  Tolstoi  is  one  of  those  men,  by  no  means 
uncommon,  of  perverted  moral  type  who  at  bottom  consider 
the  luxury  of  frantic  repentance — and  the  luxury  of  profess 
ing  adherence  to  an  impossible  and  undesirable  ideal — as  full 
atonement  for,  and  as  really  permitting,  persistence  in  a  line 
of  conduct  which  gives  the  lie  to  their  professions.  Tolstoi 
preaching  against  those  relations  of  man  and  woman,  without 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  191 

which  there  would  either  be  no  humanity,  or  a  humanity 
perpetuated  by  those  of  its  members  who  stand  closest  to 
beasts,  is  a  contemptible  figure  in  my  eyes;  but  he  is  made 
more  contemptible  when  we  know  that  all  the  time  he  is  hav 
ing  sons  and  daughters. 

I  saw  X (once  a  man  of  high  and  fine  promise)  ruined, 

and  rendered  a  worse  than  worthless  citizen,  by  falling  under 

Tolstoi's  baleful  influence;  and  Y has,  because  of  the  same 

influence,  sunk  from  being  a  most  useful  citizen  to  the  posi 
tion  of  a  well-meaning  agitator  who  latterly  has  done  rather 
more  harm  than  good,  by  sheer  folly,  committed  in  the  name 
of  philanthropy. 

About  the  Douma.  I  agree  absolutely  with  Kennan  as 
to  the  cause  of  the  Douma's  inefficiency.  But  I  think  harm 
comes  to  the  cause  of  morality  and  reform  in  Russia  if,  be 
cause  of  our  sympathy  with  its  advocates,  and  our  abhor 
rence  of  what  it  seeks  to  overthrow,  we  are  betrayed  into 
acquiescence  in  either  wickedness  or  folly.  Bryan,  for  in 
stance,  favours  a  section  of  the  Douma  which,  if  its  doctrines 
were  put  into  practice,  would  within  a  year  make  men  hail 
any  tyranny  or  despotism  as  a  relief  from  a  system  in  which 
folly  raised  to  the  Nth  power  would  inevitably  produce  a 
grade  of  wickedness  proportionately  high.  Think  of  the 
Douma  passing  a  proposed  law  to  do  away  with  capital  pun 
ishment  and  at  the  same  time  refusing  to  pass  a  resolution 
condemning  the  murder  of  officials!  We  all  warmly  sym 
pathize  with  the  overthrow  of  the  Ancien  Regime  in  France; 
but  when  the  so-called  friends  of  liberty  brought  about  the 
Red  Terror  they  did  France  a  wrong  so  hideous  that  the 
nation  has  not  yet  wrought  out  its  atonement.  There! 
You'll  never  want  to  hear  from  me  again. 

Does  not  this  comment  on  Russia,  written  nearly 
ten  years  ago,  take  on  the  aspect  of  prophecy  in  the 
light  of  the  present  results  of  Russian  Bolshevism  ? 


192    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

I  find  that  naturally  I  come  back  to  the  political 
and  social  aspect  of  Roosevelt's  work  as  a  man  of 
letters.  In  October,  1912,  he  published  a  short 
paper  in  the  Outlook  entitled  "How  I  Became  a 
Progressive."  I  print  it  here  because  it  has  not 
been  dug  out  of  the  pages  of  that  periodical  by 
anybody  else  so  far  as  I  know  and  it  deserves  a 
permanent  form  both  as  an  autobiographical  docu 
ment  and  as  a  specimen  of  Roosevelt's  simple, 
direct,  and  popular  style. 


I  suppose  I  had  a  natural  tendency  to  become  a  Progres 
sive,  anyhow.  That  is,  I  was  naturally  a  democrat,  in  be 
lieving  in  fair  play  for  everybody.  But  I  grew  toward  my 
present  position,  not  so  much  as  the  result  of  study  in  the 
library  or  the  reading  of  books — although  I  have  been  very 
much  helped  by  such  study  and  by  such  reading — as  by 
actually  living  and  working  with  men  under  many  different 
conditions  and  seeing  their  needs  from  many  different  points 
of  view. 

The  first  set  of  our  people  with  whom  I  associated  so  in 
timately  as  to  get  on  thoroughly  sympathetic  terms  with 
them  were  cow-punchers,  then  on  the  ranges  in  the  West. 
I  was  so  impressed  with  them  that  in  doing  them  justice  I 
did  injustice  to  equally  good  citizens  elsewhere  whom  I  did 
not  know;  and  it  was  a  number  of  years  before  I  grew  to 
understand — first  by  association  with  railway  men,  then  with 
farmers,  then  with  mechanics,  and  so  on — that  the  things 
that  I  specially  liked  about  my  cow-puncher  friends  were, 
after  all,  to  be  found  fundamentally  in  railway  men,  in 
farmers,  in  blacksmiths,  carpenters — in  fact,  generally  among 
my  fellow  American  citizens. 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  193 

Before  I  began  to  go  with  the  cow-punchers,  I  had  already, 
as  the  result  of  experience  in  the  Legislature  at  Albany, 
begun  rather  timidly  to  strive  for  social  and  industrial  justice. 
But  at  that  time  my  attitude  was  that  of  giving  justice  from 
above.  It  was  the  experience  on  the  range  that  first  taught 
me  to  try  to  get  justice  for  all  of  us  by  working  on  the  same 
level  with  the  rest  of  my  fellow  citizens. 

It  was  the  conviction  that  there  was  much  social  and  in 
dustrial  injustice  and  the  effort  to  secure  social  and  industrial 
justice  that  first  led  me  to  taking  so  keen  an  interest  in  popu 
lar  rule. 

For  years  I  accepted  the  theory,  as  most  of  the  rest  of  us 
then  accepted  it,  that  we  already  had  popular  government; 
that  this  was  a  government  by  the  people.  I  believed  the 
power  of  the  boss  was  due  only  to  the  indifference  and  short 
sightedness  of  the  average  decent  citizen.  Gradually  it 
came  over  me  that  while  this  was  half  the  truth,  it  was  only 
half  the  truth,  and  that  while  the  boss  owed  part  of  his  power 
to  the  fact  that  the  average  man  did  not  do  his  duty,  yet  that 
there  was  the  further  fact  to  be  considered,  that  for  the 
average  man  it  had  already  been  made  very  difficult  instead 
of  very  easy  for  him  to  do  his  duty.  I  grew  to  feel  a  keen 
interest  in  the  machinery  for  getting  adequate  and  genuine 
popular  rule,  chiefly  because  I  found  that  we  could  not  get 
social  and  industrial  justice  without  popular  rule,  and  that 
it  was  immensely  easier  to  get  such  popular  rule  by  the  means 
of  machinery  of  the  type  of  direct  nominations  at  primaries, 
the  short  ballot,  the  initiative,  referendum,  and  the  like. 

I  usually  found  that  my  interest  in  any  given  side  of  a 
question  of  justice  was  aroused  by  some  concrete  case.  It 
was  the  examination  I  made  into  the  miseries  attendant 
upon  the  manufacture  of  cigars  in  tenement-houses  that  first 
opened  my  eyes  to  the  need  of  legislation  on  such  subjects. 
My  friends  come  from  many  walks  of  life.  The  need  for  a 
workmen's  compensation  act  was  driven  home  to  me  by  my 
knowing  a  brakeman  who  had  lost  his  legs  in  an  accident, 


i94    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

and  whose  family  was  thereby  at  once  reduced  from  self- 
respecting  comfort  to  conditions  that  at  one  time  became 
very  dreadful.  Of  course,  after  coming  across  various  con 
crete  instances  of  this  kind,  I  would  begin  to  read  up  on  the 
subject,  and  then  I  would  get  in  touch  with  social  workers 
and  others  who  were  experts  and  could  acquaint  me  with 
what  was  vital  in  the  matter.  Looking  back,  it  seems  to  me 
that  I  made  my  greatest  strides  forward  while  I  was  Police 
Commissioner,  and  this  largely  through  my  intimacy  with 
Jacob  Riis,  for  he  opened  all  kinds  of  windows  into  the  matter 
for  me. 

The  Conservation  movement  I  approached  from  slightly 
different  lines.  I  have  always  been  fond  of  history  and  of 
science,  and  what  has  occurred  to  Spain,  to  Palestine,  to 
China,  and  to  North  Africa  from  the  destruction  of  natural 
resources  is  familiar  to  me.  I  have  always  been  deeply  im 
pressed  with  Liebig's  statement  that  it  was  the  decrease  of  soil 
fertility,  and  not  either  peace  or  war,  which  was  fundamental 
in  bringing  about  the  decadence  of  nations.  While  unques 
tionably  nations  have  been  destroyed  by  other  causes,  I  have 
become  convinced  that  it  was  the  destruction  of  the  soil  itself 
which  was  perhaps  the  most  fatal  of  all  causes.  But  when, 
at  the  beginning  of  my  term  of  service  as  President,  under  the 
influence  of  Mr.  Pinchot  and  Mr.  Newell,  I  took  up  the  cause 
of  Conservation,  I  was  already  fairly  well  awake  to  the  need 
of  social  and  industrial  justice;  and  from  the  outset  we  had  in 
view,  not  only  the  preservation  of  natural  resources,  but  the 
prevention  of  monopoly  in  natural  resources,  so  that  they 
should  inhere  in  the  people  as  a  whole.  There  were  plenty 
of  newspapers — the  New  York  Times,  Sun,  and  Evening 
Post,  for  instance — which  cordially  supported  our  policy  of 
Conservation  as  long  as  we  did  not  try  to  combine  it  with  a 
movement  against  monopolization  of  resources,  and  which 
promptly  abandoned  us  when  it  became  evident  that  we 
wished  to  conserve  the  resources  not  for  a  part  of  the  people 
but  for  all  of  the  people. 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  195 

The  country-life  movement  was  simply  another  side  of  this 
movement  for  a  better  and  juster  life.  From  Mary  E.  Wil- 
kins  to  Sarah  Orne  Jewett,  in  story  after  story  which  I  would 
read  for  mere  enjoyment,  I  would  come  upon  things  that  not 
merely  pleased  me  but  gave  me  instruction — (I  have  always 
thought  that  a  good  novel  or  a  good  story  could  teach  quite 
as  much  as  a  more  solemnly  pretentious  work,  if  it  was  written 
in  the  right  way  and  read  in  the  right  way) — and  then 
my  experience  on  farms,  my  knowledge  of  farmers,  the  way  I 
followed  what  happened  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
farmers  I  knew,  all  joined  to  make  me  feel  the  need  of  arous 
ing  the  public  interest  and  the  public  conscience  as  regards 
the  conditions  of  life  in  the  country. 

Here  again  I  have  been  fortunate  enough  to  live  with  my 
own  people,  and  not  to  live  as  an  outsider,  but  as  a  man  do 
ing  his  share  of  the  work.  I  know  what  the  work  and  what 
the  loneliness  of  a  farmer's  life  too  often  are.  I  do  not  want  to 
help  the  farmer  or  to  help  his  wife  in  ways  that  will  soften 
either,  but  I  do  want  to  join  with  both,  and  try  to  help  them 
and  help  myself  and  help  all  of  us,  not  by  doing  away  with 
the  need  of  work,  but  by  trying  to  create  a  situation  in  which 
work  will  be  more  fruitful,  and  in  which  the  work  shall  produce 
and  go  hand  in  hand  with  opportunities  for  self-development. 

Very  early  I  learned  through  my  reading  of  history,  and  I 
found  through  my  association  with  reformers,  that  one  of  the 
prime  difficulties  was  to  get  the  man  who  wished  reform 
within  a  nation  also  to  pay  heed  to  the  needs  of  the  nation 
from  the  international  standpoint.  Every  little  city  or  re 
public  of  antiquity  was  continually  torn  between  factions 
which  wished  to  do  justice  at  home  but  were  weak  abroad, 
and  other  factions  which  secured  justice  abroad  by  the  loss  of 
personal  liberty  at  home.  So  here  at  home  I  too  often  found 
that  men  who  were  ardent  for  social  and  industrial  reform 
would  be  ignorant  of  the  needs  of  this  Nation  as  a  nation, 
would  be  ignorant  of  what  the  Navy  meant  to  the  Nation, 
of  what  it  meant  to  the  Nation  to  have  and  to  fortify  and 


196    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

protect  the  Panama  Canal,  of  what  it  meant  to  the  Nation  to 
get  from  the  other  nations  of  mankind  the  respect  which 
comes  only  to  the  just,  and  which  is  denied  to  the  weaker 
nation  far  more  quickly  than  it  is  denied  to  the  stronger. 

It  ought  not  to  be  necessary  to  insist  upon  a  point  like  this, 
with  China  before  our  very  eyes  offering  the  most  woeful 
example  of  the  ruin  that  comes  to  a  nation  which  cannot  de 
fend  itself  against  aggression — and  China,  by  the  way,  offers 
the  further  proof  that  centuries  of  complete  absence  of  mili 
tarism  may  yet  result  in  the  development  of  all  the  worst 
vices  and  all  the  deepest  misery  that  grow  up  in  nations  that 
suffer  from  over-much  militarism.  Here  again  I  learn  from 
books,  I  learn  from  study,  and  I  learn  most  by  dealing  with 
men. 

I  feel  that  the  Progressive  party  owes  no  small  part  of  its 
strength  to  the  fact  that  it  not  only  stands  for  the  most  far- 
reaching  measures  of  social  and  industrial  reform,  but  in  sane 
and  temperate  fashion  stands  also  for  the  right  and  duty  of 
this  Nation  to  take  a  position  of  self-respecting  strength 
among  the  nations  of  the  world,  to  take  such  a  position  as  will 
do  injustice  to  no  foreign  power,  strong  or  weak,  and  yet  will 
show  that  it  has  both  the  spirit  and  the  strength  to  repel  in 
justice  from  abroad. 

It  would  be  a  pity  to  leave  the  impression,  as 
perhaps  would  be  the  case  if  Roosevelt's  Progres 
sive  creed  were  made  the  conclusion  of  this  chapter, 
that  his  interests  were  exclusively — or  even  pri 
marily — social  and  political.  The  fact  is  that  he 
was  so  varied  and  had  so  many  facets  to  his  per 
sonality  that  I  am  confused  myself  to  determine 
what  he  was  most  interested  in.  He  had  a  deep 
love  for  pure  beauty  in  literature.  Keats's  "Ode 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  197 

on  a  Grecian  Urn"  was,  for  example,  one  of  his 
favourite  poems.  Its  appeal  to  him  was,  I  think, 
not  merely  because  of  its  music  and  the  artistry  of 
its  form,  but  because  it  takes  its  reader  completely 
out  of  material  life  and  puts  him  into  the  quieting 
and  problemless  universe  of  pure  imagination. 

The  day  before  he  left  London,  on  his  return 
from  his  African  and  European  tour  in  1910,  Roose 
velt  disappeared.  Itwas  known  that  he  had  gone  off 
with  Sir  Edward  (now  Viscount)  Grey,  but  where 
he  went  nobody  knew — and  the  newspapers  could 
not  find  out.  This,  in  his  own  language,  was  what 
happened: 

Like  most  Americans  interested  in  birds  and  books,  I  know 
a  good  deal  about  English  birds  as  they  appear  in  books.  I 
know  the  lark  of  Shakespeare  and  Shelley  and  the  Ettrick 
Shepherd;  I  know  the  nightingale  of  Milton  and  Keats;  I 
know  Wordsworth's  cuckoo;  I  know  mavis  and  merle  singing 
in  the  merry  green  wood  of  the  old  ballads;  I  know  Jenny 
Wren  and  Cock  Robin  of  the  nursery  books.  Therefore  I 
have  always  much  desired  to  hear  the  birds  in  real  life;  and 
the  opportunity  offered  last  June.  As  I  could  snatch  but  a 
few  hours  from  a  very  exacting  round  of  pleasure  and  duties, 
it  was  necessary  for  me  to  be  with  some  companion  who 
could  identify  both  song  and  singer.  In  Sir  Edward  Grey, 
a  keen  lover  of  outdoor  life  in  all  its  phases,  and  a  delightful 
companion,  who  knows  the  songs  and  ways  of  English  birds 
as  very  few  do  know  them,  I  found  the  best  possible  guide. 

We  left  London  on  the  morning  of  June  9,  twenty-four 
hours  before  I  sailed  from  Southampton.  Getting  off  the 
train  at  Basingstoke,  we  drove  to  the  pretty,  smiling  valley 


i98    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

of  the  Itchen.  Here  we  tramped  for  three  or  four  hours,  then 
again  drove,  this  time  to  the  edge  of  the  New  Forest,  where 
we  first  took  tea  at  an  inn,  and  then  tramped  through  the 
forest  to  an  inn  on  its  other  side,  at  Brockenhurst.  At  the 
conclusion  of  our  walk  my  companion  made  a  list  of  the  birds 
we  had  seen,  putting  an  asterisk  opposite  those  which  we  had 
heard  sing.  There  were  forty-one  of  the  former  and  twenty- 
three  of  the  latter,  as  follows: 

Thrush,  *Blackbird,  *Lark,  *Yellow  Hammer,  *Robin, 
*Wren,  *Golden-Crested  Wren,  *Goldfinch,  *Chaffinch, 
*Greenfinch,  Pied  Wagtail,  Sparrow,  *Dunnock  (Hedge 
Accentor),  Missel  Thrush,  Starling,  Rook,  Jackdaw,  *Black 
Cap,  *Garden  Warbler,  *Willow  Warbler,  *Chiff  Chaff,  *Wood 
Warbler,  "Tree  Creeper,  *Reed  Bunting,  *Sedge  Warbler, 
Coot,  Water  Hen,  Little  Grebe  (Dabchick),  Tufted  Duck, 
Wood  Pigeon,  Stock  Dove,  *Turtle  Dove,  Peewit,  Tit  (?CoaI 
Tit),  *Cuckoo,  *Nightjar,  *Swallow,  Martin,  Swift,  Pheasant, 
Partridge. 

The  foregoing  account  is  taken  from  an  article 
on  English  Song  Birds  which  he  wrote  for  the 
Outlook  on  his  return.  When  he  got  back  he  went 
out  at  Sagamore  Hill  to  compare  what  he  saw  of 
the  home  birds  with  "the  notes  and  actions  of  the 
birds  I  had  seen  in  England."  He  ends  the  article 
in  this  way: 

I  sent  the  companion  of  my  English  walk  John  Burroughs's 
"Birds  and  Poets."  John  Burroughs's  life-work  is  beginning 
to  have  its  full  effect  in  many  different  lines.  When  he  first 
wrote  there  were  few  men  of  letters  in  our  country  who  knew 
nature  at  first  hand.  Now  there  are  many  who  delight  in 
our  birds,  who  know  their  songs,  who  keenly  love  all  that 
belongs  to  out-of-door  life.  For  instance,  Madison  Cawein 


Underwood  &  Underwood 


Roosevelt  as  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  Rough  Riders 


©  Underwood  &  Underwood 

Colonel  Roosevelt  with  the  Rough  Riders 


A  MAN  OF  LETTERS  199 

and  Ernest  McGaffey  have  for  a  number  of  years  written  of 
our  woods  and  fields,  of  the  birds  and  the  flowers,  as  only 
those  can  write  who  join  to  love  of  Nature  the  gift  of  observa 
tion  and  the  gift  of  description.  Mr.  Cawein  is  a  Kentuckian; 
and  another  Kentuckian,  Miss  Julia  Stockton  Dinsmore, 
in  the  little  volume  of  poems  which  she  has  just  published, 
includes  many  which  describe  with  beauty  and  charm  the 
sights  and  sounds  so  dear  to  all  of  us  who  know  American 
country  life.  Miss  Dinsmore  knows  Kentucky,  and  the  Gulf 
Coast  of  Louisiana,  and  the  great  plains  of  North  Dakota; 
and  she  knows  also  the  regions  that  lie  outside  of  what  can  be 
seen  with  material  vision.  For  years  in  our  family  we  have 
had  some  of  her  poems  in  the  scrap-book  cut  from  newspapers 
when  we  knew  nothing  about  her  except  the  initials  signed 
to  the  verses.  Only  one  who  sees  with  the  eyes  of  the  spirit 
as  well  as  the  eyes  of  the  body  could  have  written  the  "Thre 
nody,"  curiously  attractive  in  its  simplicity  and  pathos,  with 
which  the  little  book  opens.  It  contains  many  poems  that 
make  a  similar  appeal.  The  writer  knows  bluebird  and  robin, 
redbird  and  field  lark  and  whippoorwill,  just  as  she  knows 
Southern  rivers  and  Western  plains;  she  knows  rushing  winds 
and  running  waters  and  the  sights  and  sounds  of  lonely 
places;  and,  moreover,  she  knows,  and  almost  tells,  those 
hidden  things  of  the  heart  which  never  find  complete  utter 
ance. 

I  wonder  whether  birds  and  children  and  home 
did  not  have  a  deeper  interest  for  Roosevelt  than 
soldiering  or  pioneering  or  statesmanship?  After 
all  is  said  and  done,  should  not  the  final  estimate 
be  that  he  was,  not  a  literary  man,  not  a  political 
man,  not  a  military  man,  but  a  homely  man  ? 


CHAPTER  VII 
AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR 

TT7HEN  Roosevelt  made  his  plans  in  the 
autumn  of  1908  and  the  early  winter  of  1909 
to  explore  the  African  jungle  as  a  hunter-naturalist, 
to  use  his  own  phrase,  I  arranged,  with  his  approval, 
to  accompany  him  as  far  as  Mombasa,  on  the 
western  shore  of  the  Red  Sea,  whence  he  was  to 
enter  the  wilderness.  He  was  to  sail  on  Tuesday, 
March  23  rd,  on  the  North  German  Lloyd  steam 
ship  Hamburg,  bound  for  Naples.  I  had  arranged 
my  passage  and  bought  my  tickets  when  he  wrote 
me  as  follows  from  the  White  House  on  February 
first: 


After  considerable  thought  I  told  the  Associated  Press 
people  that  I  did  not  wish  even  you  to  go  with  me  on  my 
trip.  I  don't  want  any  people  able  to  say  that  I  am  respon 
sible  for  any  newspaper  man  or  magazine  writer  accompany 
ing  me  on  my  trip.  I  want  to  be  able  to  say  that  I  have 
done  my  best  to  keep  every  representative  of  the  press 
from  accompanying  me  or  from  advertising  the  trip  in  any 
way  and  that  beyond  the  formal  exchange  of  courtesies  I 
have  had  no  communication  with  any  newspaper  man  while 
on  the  trip, 

200 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          201 

Of  course  I  cheerfully,  but  regretfully,  cancelled 
my  passage  and  stayed  behind. 

When  Roosevelt  left  New  York  he  had  arranged 
to  make  three  formal  public  speeches  during  his 
return  home  through  Europe  in  1910 — the  address 
at  the  Sorbonne  (referred  to  in  the  preceding 
chapter),  an  address  at  the  University  of  Berlin, 
and  the  Romanes  Lecture  at  Oxford  University. 
The  three  addresses,  which  were  to  be  not  political 
but  academic  in  character,  had  been  written  before 
he  left  America.  I  was  anxious  to  hear  them  be 
cause  I  believed  that  the  occasions  of  their  delivery 
would  prove  to  be  university  events  of  the  first 
importance.  So  during  the  autumn  of  1909  I 
wrote  and  asked  him  whether  he  had  any  objection 
to  my  joining  him  in  France  the  following  spring, 
in  order  to  hear  these  three  addresses. 

There  lies  before  me,  as  I  write,  an  autograph 
letter  from  Roosevelt — dated  "On  Safari,  De 
cember  2,  1909" — which  was  chiefly  devoted 
to  the  controversy  about  the  record  of  the 
Rough  Riders  at  San  Juan  Hill.  It  may  be  of 
interest  to  quote  here  what  he  said  of  this  con 
troversy: 

About  B 's  letter  concerning  the  Rough  Riders  at  San 

Juan  Hill  my  own  idea  is  that  a  public  controversy  on  the  sub 
ject  would  be  unwise.     You  can  write  B what  I  now  say: 


202    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Mr.  B ,  by  his  own  letter,  shows  that  I  stated  the  facts 

exactly  in  the  volume  I  wrote.  ["The  Rough  Riders."] 
There  is  no  misapprehension  in  the  matter  at  all,  except  in 

minds  like  Mr.  B 's.  The  San  Juan  Block  House  was 

simply  one  of  the  points  of  attack;  the  rest  of  the  San  Juan 
Ridge,  and  the  hills  near  by,  like  Kettle  Hill,  form  other 
points  of  attack.  The  cavalry  charged  at  "San  Juan  Hill" 
just  as  much  as  the  infantry;  to  deny  this  is  merely  to  quib 
ble — and  to  quibble  untruthfully  at  that;  and  they  charged 
"over  the  hill  at  San  Juan."  The  titles  of  the  pictures  to 

which  Mr.  B objects  are  absolutely  accurate.  Let  him 

for  a  moment  think  of  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg.  This  took 
its  name  from  the  village  of  Gettysburg,  where  there  was 
much  hard  fighting.  But  there  was  also  hard  fighting  at 
Gulp's  Hill,  at  Round  Top,  and  at  the  stone  wall  facing  Pick- 

ett's  charge.  To  say,  as  Mr.  B does, that  the  Rough  Riders 

and  the  regular  cavalry  "had  no  hand  in  the  matter"  of  the 
San  Juan  charge  is  as  foolish  and  untruthful  as  to  say  that 
Pickett's  Virginians  and  all  the  men  who  fought  at  Round  Top 
and  Gulp's  Hill  "had  no  hand  in  the  fight  at  Gettysburg." 

The  infantry  brigades  which  went  up  the  Blockhouse  Hill 
at  San  Juan  did  admirably;  they  deserve  no  less,  and  no  more, 
credit  than  the  cavalry  brigades  who  at  the  same  time  did 
their  share  in  the  charge,  that  is  the  battle,  of  San  Juan  (it 
was  all  a  charge  and  then  holding  the  ground  we  had  taken). 
Only  one  of  the  five  or  six  regiments  in  the  two  infantry 
brigades  which  charged  at  the  Blockhouse  Hill  suffered  as 
heavy  a  percentage  of  loss  in  the  Santiago  fighting  as  the 
Rough  Riders  did.  The  first  position  captured  on  the  "San 
Juan  Heights" — that  is  the  hills,  loosely  so-called,  which 
defended  the  town — was  Kettle  Hill,  by  the  cavalry.  To 
try  to  start  a  quarrel  over  the  relative  credit  of  the  regiments 
who  fought  in  this  fight  is  foolish  and  wrong;  "the  famous 

charge  up  San  Juan"  as  Mr.  B calls  it,  was  made  by  both 

cavalry  and  infantry,  at  different  points,  and  Mr.  B 's 

position  is  merely  a  disingenuous  quibble. 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR  203 

The  special  interest  about  this  letter  is  that  it 
was  written  in  the  jungle,  under  circumstances  that 
make  some  of  the  handwriting  very  hard  to  de 
cipher  and,  like  the  article  on  the  Pigskin  Library, 
referred  to  later,  without  access  to  any  maps  or 
books  of  reference.  It  is  one  of  many  evidences 
that  Roosevelt's  mind  was  stored  with  facts  of  all 
kinds — historical,  geographical,  and  scientific — and 
that  he  could  take  these  facts  out,  often  with  literal 
and  accurate  quotations,  from  their  various  mental 
pigeon-holes. 

In  a  postscript  to  this  letter  he  added:  "I  hope 
you  will  meet  me  at  Khartum  on  March  fifteenth." 
So  on  February  10,  1910,  I  took  passage  for 
Naples,  whence  I  proceeded  via  Alexandria,  Cairo, 
and  the  upper  reaches  of  the  Nile,  to  Khartum. 
I  found  that  Mrs.  Roosevelt  and  Ethel  Roosevelt, 
now  Mrs.  Derby,  were  going  on  the  same  steamer; 
I  was  therefore,  happily  for  myself,  able  to  act  as 
their  escort. 

It  was  typical  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  exactness  in 
planning  and  carrying  out  his  engagements  that 
he  should  have  arrived  at  Khartum  on  March 
I4th,  the  day  before  that  which,  in  the  previous 
December,  he  had  appointed  as  the  date  of  our 
meeting.  On  reaching  Khartum  I  learned  that 
through  the  considerate  thoughtfulness  of  either 


204    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Mr.  or  Mrs.  Roosevelt — perhaps  of  both — I  was 
to  be  their  fellow  guest  at  the  Governor-General's 
palace,  a  really  beautiful  and  delightful  establish 
ment  built  in  the  custom  of  tropical  countries 
round  three  sides  of  a  patio  or  courtyard  filled 
with  flowers  and  shrubs. 

The  Roosevelt  party  consisted  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Roosevelt,  their  daughter  and  son,  Ethel  and 
Kermit.  I  found  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  proposed 
to  buy  the  tickets,  check  the  trunks,  write  his 
own  letters,  and  keep  track  of  his  own  engage 
ments.  In  a  word,  he  expected  to  make  the  journey 
from  Khartum  through  Europe  like  any  American 
tourist. 

I  was  with  him  only  three  or  four  hours  when  I 
foresaw  that  fulfillment  of  this  programme  would 
be  absolutely  impossible.  It  was  apparent  that 
he  was  going  to  be  treated  like  a  royal  ambassa 
dor,  and  that  it  would  be  necessary  for  him  to 
have  some  kind  of  secretarial  assistance.  I  vol 
unteered  to  help  him  and  I  think  he  was  glad  to 
get  my  help,  for  almost  every  one  of  his  waking 
hours  was  fully  occupied  from  the  very  moment 
of  his  arrival  within  the  precincts  of  civilization. 
Indeed  he  said  in  accepting  my  offer,  and  employ 
ing  a  characteristic  exclamation  associated  with 
him  in  the  mind  of  every  contemporary  American 


.^  pagf  from  Roosevelt's  Ms.  of  "  T/^  Pigskin  Library 


205 


206    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

newspaper  writer  and  cartoonist,  that  he  was  "de 
lighted!" 

One  of  the  first  of  my  self-imposed  duties  was  to 
copy  in  my  own  hand  the  draft  of  his  article  on 
"The  Pigskin  Library"  which  was  written  in  in 
delible  pencil  in  the  jungle,  originally  published 
in  the  Outlook,  and  afterward  incorporated  in  an 
appendix  of  his  book  "African  Game  Trails." 
The  accompanying  photographic  reproduction  of  a 
page  of  this  manuscript  will  indicate  to  the  reader 
that  the  job  was  not  altogether  a  simple  one.  I 
remember  that  I  sat  up  until  about  two  or  three 
o'clock  on  the  night  of  my  arrival  in  Khartum 
making  this  transcript. 

Finally  I  found  that  I  could  not  perform  my 
voluntary  task  without  assistance  and  I  told  Mr. 
Roosevelt  that  I  proposed  to  cable  to  my  office 
in  New  York  for  a  stenographic  secretary.  He 
demurred  at  first  on  the  ground  that  he  did  not 
wish  to  put  the  office  to  what  he  was  afraid  would 
be  a  large  and  unprofitable  expense,  but  I  per 
suaded  him  to  consent,  telling  him  that  I  was  think 
ing  more  of  my  own  comfort  than  I  was  of  his.  I 
cabled;  and  Mr.  Harper  jumped  on  the  first  steamer 
and  joined  us  at  Rome.  Even  Harper  was  unable 
to  keep  up  with  all  the  work,  so  at  Berlin  I  was 
compelled  to  engage  another  stenographic  assistant 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          207 

and,  in  London,  two  others.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
in  London  Mr.  Roosevelt's  old  friend  of  Spanish 
War  days,  Captain  (now  Sir  Arthur)  Lee,  placed 
at  our  disposal  the  office  in  his  hospitable  house 
where  he  transacted  much  of  his  business  as  a 
Member  of  Parliament.  This,  office,  with  desks, 
telephone,  two  stenographic  'secretaries  (some  of 
the  time  three),  was  busy  all  day  long  during 
Mr.  Roosevelt's  stay  in  London  of  ten  days  or 
so,  transacting  his  correspondence,  planning  his 
engagements,  and  attending  to  other  matters 
connected  with  his  visit.  There  was,  for  example, 
the  complicated  work  of  exchanging  visiting  cards. 
This  necessary  but  very  uninteresting  side  of 
diplomatic  usage  reached  its  climax  in  Rome. 
There,  I  recall,  I  had  to  spend  a  day  with  Captain 
Long — formerly  of  the  presidential  yacht  May 
flower  but  at  that  time  our  Naval  Attache  at  Rome 
and  Vienna — going  over  a  basket  full  of  visiting 
cards,  culling  out  those  that  needed  Mr.  or  Mrs. 
Roosevelt's,  or  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt's  card 
left  in  exchange,  and  the  following  day  a  clerk  of 
Captain  Long's  office  spent  most  of  his  time  in  a 
taxi-cab,  with  a  carefully  mapped  out  itinerary 
in  his  hand,  going  about  Rome  leaving  the  right 
cards  at  the  right  places. 

But  to  revert  to  Khartum,     I  soon  found  that, 


208    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

in  writing  letters  or  seeing  people  on  Mr.  Roose 
velt's  behalf,  it  was  necessary  to  have  some  sort 
of  official  authority.  At  Cairo  all  sorts  of  distin 
guished  people  were  calling  at  the  hotel  at  which 

Mr.    Roosevelt   was   staying.     If   Prince   X 

called,  in  Mr.  Roosevelt's  absence,  and  I  went 
down  to  receive  him,  my  name  would  mean  nothing 
to  him;  but  if  I  said  that  I  was  Mr.  Roosevelt's 
secretary,  while  he  undoubtedly  would  be  disap 
pointed  he  would  at  least  have  transacted  his  busi 
ness  with  me  as  he  would  have  with  the  secretary 
of  an  embassy  or  a  legation.  I  suggested  this  to 
Mr.  Roosevelt  and  he  approved.  Thereafter  I  saw 
people  officially,  and  signed  all  letters — except  the 
few  that  were  signed  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  himself 
— as  "Secretary  to  Mr.  Roosevelt."  The  result  was 
that  as  we  went  through  Europe  I  received  cards  to 
important  functions  and  met  important  personages, 
which  made  my  trip  a  peculiarly  interesting  one  and 
enabled  me  to  get  an  impression — that  I  could  not 
have  otherwise  received — of  the  way  in  which  both 
the  great  and  the  plain  people  of  Europe  were 
affected  by  Roosevelt's  personality.  It  is  impossi 
ble  here  to  draw  a  detailed  picture  of  this  unique 
journey.  I  can  only  give  sketches  of  what  seemed 
to  me  to  have  been  interesting  and  significant 
incidents  here  and  there.  Nor  shall  I  pursue 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          209 

diarial  methods.     I  shall  simply  put  down  what 
my  recollection  suggests  while  I  write. 

The  first  thing  that  I  recall  is  my  grateful  relief 
at  having  the  vexed  question  of  tipping  settled 
for  me  at  the  very  beginning.  I  must  explain 
that  within  twenty-four  hours  of  meeting  Mr. 
Roosevelt  at  Khartum  I  had  charge  of  all  his 
money,  checks,  letters  of  credit,  etc.,  and  undertook 
to  pay  all  the  bills.  I  bought  a  single-entry  ledger 
and  kept  a  careful  account.  Mr.  Roosevelt  would 
occasionally  come  to  me  and  ask  for  a  little  pocket 
money,  say  twenty  francs.  I  would  reply:  "I 
will  see  if  I  can  get  it  through  the  Committee  on 
Appropriations"!  This  became  a  standing  joke 
between  us. 

I  may  say,  running  ahead  a  little,  that  when  we 
sailed  for  New  York  from  Southampton  in  June, 
i  reported  to  Mr.  Roosevelt  that  I  had,  as  I  recol 
lect,  the  sum  of  about  three  thousand  dollars  to 
his  credit.  He  answered  with  some  surprise: 
"That's  good!  That  will  help  me  to  pay  the 
duties  on  my  baggage  at  the  custom  house." 
For  he  had  declined  to  avail  himself  of  the  am 
bassadorial  privilege  which  had  been  offered  to  him 
of  entering  the  port  of  New  York  without  an  exami 
nation  of  his  baggage.  I  really  think  that  if  I 
had  told  him  that  he  owed  me  three  thousand 


210    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

dollars   he   would   have   said:  "That's   good!    I 
supposed  it  was  much  more." 

The  fact  is  that  he  had  less  interest  in  money,  as 
mere  money,  than  almost  any  man  that  I  have  ever 
known.  He  was  very  much  more  interested  in  work 
and  service.  In  1908,  on  visiting  Sagamore  Hill  to 
conclude  the  final  arrangements  about  his  joining 
the  staff  of  the  Outlook,  when  I  mentioned  the 
amount  which  we  were  prepared  to  pay  him — a 
fairly  large  sum,  it  is  true,  for  us,  but  a  really  small 
amount  in  comparison  with  offers  that  had  been 
eagerly  made  him  for  journalistic  and  literary 
work— he  put  his  arm  around  my  shoulder  and  said: 
"Now,  that  is  very  good  of  you,  Lawrence;  but 
do  you  really  think  you  can  afford  it  ?  I  should  be 
very  sorry  if  my  connection  with  the  Outlook  did 
not  prove  to  be  the  advantage  to  you  which  you 
say  you  anticipate."  And  on  September  10,  1909, 
he  wrote  me  from  the  African  jungle: 

The  Outlook  keeps  me  in  touch  with  things  just  as  I  desire 
to  be  kept.  I  am  exceedingly  pleased  at  what  you  write  as  to 
being  satisfied  with  the  effect  of  my  editorials;  I  have  been  a 
little  uncomfortable  lest  you  should  feel  that  you  weren't 
getting  much  good  out  of  my  connection  with  the  magazine. 

So  long  as  his  family  was  well  taken  care  of  and 
he  had  reasonably  good  food,  reasonably  appro 
priate  clothing,  and  a  reasonable  opportunity  to 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          211 

be  hospitable  to  his  friends,  money  meant  nothing 
to  him.  His  brother-in-law,  the  late  Douglas 
Robinson,  who  was  himself  an  eminently  success 
ful  and  systematic  man  of  affairs,  once  told  me  that 
when  Roosevelt  was  about  leaving  home  to  go  into 
the  Spanish  War  as  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the 
Rough  Riders  he,  Douglas  Robinson,  could  not 
by  hook  or  crook  persuade  the  Colonel  to  come 
down  town  in  order  to  go  over  his  investments 
and  securities  which  were  in  Mr.  Robinson's 
charge.  Mr.  Robinson  finally  got  him  to  visit 
his  office  by  saying:  "Theodore,  if  you  don't 
come  down  and  go  over  these  papers  and  valuables 
with  me  I  shall  have  to  get  Edith  [Mrs.  Roosevelt] 
to  do  it."  Whereupon  Mr.  Roosevelt  instantly 
consented,  for  he  was  not  willing  to  impose  a 
burden  on  his  wife  which  he  should  assume  himself. 
But  I  have  strayed  too  soon  from  Africa.  As 
we  were  leaving  Khartum  after  a  delightful  stay 
of  several  days  at  the  palace,  Roosevelt  asked 
me  to  be  sure  that  the  servants — both  outdoors 
and  in — were  given  suitable  tips  with  an  expression 
of  his  thanks  for  their  services  to  him.  Now 
most  of  these  servants  were  Nubians,  black  as 
to  face  and  white  as  to  garments  and  turbans. 
It  was  as  impossible  to  tell  one  from  another 
as  it  is  to  identify  individual  sheep  feeding  in 


212    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

a  flock  on  a  Western  plain.  In  my  puzzlement 
I  went  to  Slatin  Pasha's  personal  aide,  a  most 
kindly  and  agreeable  young  British  officer,  Captain 
Clayton.  (If  he  has  survived  the  European  war 
and  should  ever  happen  to  see  these  words  I  hope 
he  will  accept  them  as  an  expression  of  very  real 
gratitude  for  all  his  courtesies.)  I  stated  the 
situation  frankly  to  Captain  Clayton  and  asked 
him  whether  he  could  help  me.  He  replied  that 
if  I  would  leave  a  sum  of  money  with  him  he  would 
see  that  it  was  properly  distributed,  and  suggested 
that  we  both  go  in  to  Slatin  Pasha  and  consult 
with  him  as  to  the  proper  amount. 

We  did  so.  I  found  that  both  these  gentlemen 
were  more  anxious  to  protect  Roosevelt  financially 
than  I  was.  They  named  a  sum,  which  I  thought 
was  not  sufficient,  and  accepted  as  generous  the 
amount  I  left  on  Roosevelt's  behalf.  Captain 
Clayton  gave  me  an  official  receipt  for  this  sum. 
This  started  me  on  my  career,  as  a  courier,  re 
joicing,  and  at  every  hotel  I  left  a  lump  sum 
with  the  manager  to  be  distributed  among  the 
domestics.  I  pursued  the  same  method,  which 
it  seems  was  the  method  of  royal  and  ambas 
sadorial  personages,  at  two  or  three  of  the  palaces 
where  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  a  guest.  In  each  case  I 
had  from  an  official  a  receipt  like  the  following, 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          213 

which  lies  before  me,  written  on  paper  bearing  an 
embossed  coat  of  arms : 

X Castle 

I  acknowledge  that  I  have  received  from  Mr.  Abbott  the 
sum  of  one  hundred  dollars  as  a  gratification  to  the  servants 
of  the  Royal  Palace  from  Mr.  Roosevelt. 

Y.  Z , 

Master  of  the  Royal  Household 
X ,  May  6,  1910. 

Such  an  experience  as  this  was  perhaps  one  of  the 
least  important,  but  certainly  not  one  of  the  least 
interesting,  of  the  journey — to  an  American  at  any 
rate. 

It  was  not  until  we  began  to  approach  Rome  that 
arhe  social  and  political  atmosphere  began  to  be 
impregnated  with  some  of  the  electricity  that  I 
had  seen  so  often  play  about  the  figure  of  Roosevelt 
at  home.  I  refer,  of  course,  to  what  is  now  known 
as  the  Vatican  controversy.  I  can  best  tell  the 
story  by  transcribing  here  the  following  memoran 
dum  which  I  wrote  on  board  the  steamship  Prinz 
Heinrich  on  April  i,  1910,  during  the  voyage  from 
Alexandria  to  Naples: 

Mr.  Roosevelt  wrote  from  Gondokoro  to  Ambassador 
Leishman  at  Rome  saying  that  he  would  be  glad  of  the  honour 
of  a  presentation  to  His  Holiness,  the  Pope.  At  Cairo  he 
received  the  following  cable  message  from  Mr.  Leishman, 
dated  Rome,  March  23rd: 

"The  Rector  of  the  American  Catholic  College  [Monsignor 


214    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Kennedy]  in  reply  to  the  enquiry  which  I  caused  to  be  made, 
requests  that  the  following  communication  be  transmitted  to 
you:  'The  Holy  Father  will  be  delighted  to  grant  audience 
to  Mr.  Roosevelt  on  April  5th  and  hopes  that  nothing  will 
arise  to  prevent  it  such  as  the  much  regretted  incident  which 
made  the  reception  of  Mr.  Fairbanks  impossible. — THOMAS 
KENNEDY,  Rector*.  I  merely  transmit  communication  with 
out  having  committed  you  in  any  way  to  accept  the  condi 
tions  imposed  as  the  form  appears  objectionable,  clearly  in 
dicating  that  the  audience  would  be  cancelled  in  case  you 
should  take  any  action  while  here  that  might  be  construed 
as  countenancing  the  Methodist  Mission  work — LEISHMAN." 

To  this  despatch  Mr.  Roosevelt  replied  by  cable  on  March 
25th  as  follows: 

"Please  present  the  following  through  Monsignor  Ken 
nedy:  Tt  would  be  a  real  pleasure  to  me  to  be  presented  to  the 
Holy  Father,  for  whom  I  entertain  a  high  respect  both  per 
sonally  and  as  the  head  of  a  great  Church.  I  fully  recognize 
his  entire  right  to  receive  or  not  to  receive  whomsoever  he 
chooses  for  any  reason  that  seems  good  to  him,  and  if  he  does 
not  receive  me  I  shall  not  for  a  moment  question  the  propriety 
of  his  action.  On  the  other  hand  I,  in  my  turn,  must  decline 
to  make  any  stipulations  or  to  submit  to  any  conditions  which 
in  any  way  limit  my  freedom  of  conduct.  I  trust  that  on 
April  5th  he  will  find  it  convenient  to  receive  me.' — ROOSE 


VELT." 


It  should  be  here  stated  that,  while  this  correspondence  was 
pending,  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  persistently  declined,  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  make  any  public  engagements  of 
any  kind  whatsoever  in  Rome,  except  his  visit  to  the  King. 
In  order  to  go  as  far  as  he  could  with  propriety  in  meeting  the 
wishes  of  the  Vatican  he  deferred  his  own  decision  as  to  any 
possible  public  engagements  until  his  arrival  in  Rome.  This 
had  been  his  answer  to  all  invitations;  he  felt  that  he  would 
be  obliged  first  to  find  out  from  the  Ambassador  the  exact 
situation. 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          215 

Answering  Mr.  Roosevelt's  despatch  of  March  25th,  above 
quoted,  Monsignor  Kennedy  on  March  28th  transmitted  the 
following  reply  through  Ambassador  Leishman: 

"His  Holiness  would  be  much  honoured  to  grant  an  au 
dience  to  Mr.  Roosevelt  for  whom  he  entertains  high  esteem 
both  personally  and  as  the  former  President  of  the  United 
States.  His  Holiness  quite  recognizes  Mr.  Roosevelt's  entire 
right  to  freedom  of  conduct.  On  the  other  hand,  in  view 
of  circumstances,  for  which  neither  His  Holiness  nor  Mr. 
Roosevelt  is  responsible,  the  audience  could  not  take  place 
except  on  the  understanding  expressed  in  former  message." 

In  response  Mr.  Roosevelt  sent  the  following  despatch  to 
Ambassador  Leishman: 

"  Proposed  presentation  is  of  course  now  impossible.  Please 
be  scrupulously  careful  that  not  one  word  on  matter  is  said 
until  I  see  you  in  Rome. — ROOSEVELT." 

In  some  further  cable  correspondence  the  Ambassador 
suggested  the  desirability  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  issuing  a  formal 
statement  in  order  to  prevent  his  attitude  being  misunder 
stood  or  his  exchange  of  notes  with  the  Vatican  being  garbled 
by  the  press  or  other  interested  parties.  In  order,  however, 
to  give  his  personal  friend  and  associate  John  Callan 
O'Laughlin — a  Roman  Catholic  but  a  loyal  supporter  of  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  principles  and  position  in  the  matter — a  last 
chance  to  see  whether  the  Vatican  could  not  be  persuaded,  for 
the  sake  of  the  American  Catholic  Church,  to  change  its 
stand,  Mr.  Roosevelt,  very  generously  I  think,  deferred  any 
personal  statement  or  comment  until  Mr.  O'Laughlin  could 
go  to  Monsignor  Kennedy  himself.  At  this  writing  (April 
ist)  Mr.  O'Laughlin  has,  through  his  wife,  cabled  a  message 
to  Archbishop  Falconio,  the  Papal  legate  at  Washington, 
urging  him  to  advise  the  Vatican  that  its  action,  if  persisted 
in,  would  injure  the  Catholic  Church  in  America.  Mr. 
O'Laughlin  goes  by  first  train  to  Rome  to-morrow  morning, 
on  our  arrival  in  Naples,  to  see  Monsignor  Kennedy  person 
ally.  I  need  hardly  add  that  this  is  done  on  Mr.  O'Laugh- 


216    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

lin's  own  initiative  and  is  consented  to  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 
only  on  the  explicit  understanding  that  the  consent  is  given 
out  of  a  feeling  of  regard  for  his  Catholic  friends  at  home  and 
not  because  he  himself  has  the  slightest  desire  or  inclination 
to  urge  his  presentation  to  the  Pope.  It  was  explicitly 
understood  by  both  Mr.  O'Laughlin  and  myself  that,  under 
no  consideration,  would  Mr.  Roosevelt  recede  from  the  posi 
tion  taken  by  him  in  his  cable  message,  above  quoted,  of  the 
date  of  March  25th. 

The  result,  of  course,  was  that  Mr.  Roosevelt 
did  not  meet  the  Pope.  Nor  did  he  visit  the 
Methodist  mission;  he  declined  to  receive  the  head 
of  that  mission,  at  the  official  reception  which  was 
given  to  him  at  the  American  Embassy,  after  it 
was  definitely  settled  that  he  was  not  to  go  to  the 
Vatican.  From  the  beginning  he  had  no  intention 
of  taking  sides  in  the  conflict  between  the  Metho 
dists  and  the  Roman  Church,  a  conflict  which  had 
arisen  over  the  previous  visit  of  Vice-President 
Fairbanks.  His  contention  was  solely  that  he 
must  reserve  the  right  to  exercise  his  own  judg 
ment  as  to  what  his  course  should  be  without 
accepting  conditions  imposed  by  others.  He  cabled 
to  New  York  the  following  statement  with  regard 
to  the  controversy: 

Through  the  Outlook  I  wish  to  make  a  statement  to  my 
fellow-Americans  regarding  what  has  occurred  in  connection 
with  the  Vatican.  I  am  sure  that  the  great  majority  of  my 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          217 

fellow-citizens,  Catholics  quite  as  much  as  Protestants,  will 
feel  that  I  acted  in  the  only  way  possible  for  an  American  to 
act,  and  because  of  this  very  fact  I  most  earnestly  hope  that 
the  incident  will  be  treated  in  a  matter-of-course  way,  as 
merely  personal,  and,  above  all,  as  not  warranting  the  slight 
est  exhibition  of  rancour  or  bitterness.  Among  my  best  and 
closest  friends  are  many  Catholics.  The  respect  and  regard 
of  those  of  my  fellow- Americans  who  are  Catholics  are  as  dear 
to  me  as  the  respect  and  regard  of  those  who  are  Protestants. 
On  my  journey  through  Africa  I  visited  many  Catholic  as  well 
as  many  Protestant  missions,  and  I  look  forward  to  telling  the 
people  at  home  all  that  has  been  done  by  Protestants  and 
Catholics  alike,  as  I  saw  it,  in  the  field  of  missionary  en 
deavour.  It  would  cause  me  a  real  pang  to  have  anything 
said  or  done  that  would  hurt  or  give  pain  to  my  friends,  what 
ever  their  religious  belief,  but  any  merely  personal  considera 
tions  are  of  no  consequence  in  this  matter.  The  important 
consideration  is  the  avoidance  of  harsh  and  bitter  comment 
such  as  may  excite  mistrust  and  anger  between  and  among 
good  men.  The  more  an  American  sees  of  other  countries 
the  more  profound  must  be  his  feelings  of  gratitude  that  in 
his  own  land  there  is  not  merely  complete  toleration  but  the 
heartiest  good  will  and  sympathy  between  sincere  and  honest 
men  of  different  faiths — good  will  and  sympathy  so  complete 
that  in  the  inevitable  daily  relations  of  our  American  life 
Catholics  and  Protestants  meet  together  and  work  together 
without  the  thought  of  difference  of  creed  being  even  pres 
ent  in  their  minds.  This  is  a  condition  so  vital  to  our 
National  well-being  that  nothing  should  be  permitted  to 
jeopard  it.  Bitter  comment  and  criticism,  acrimonious 
attack  and  defense,  are  not  only  profitless  but  harmful, 
and  to  seize  upon  such  an  incident  as  this  as  an  occasion 
for  controversy  would  be  wholly  indefensible  and  should 
be  frowned  upon  by  Catholics  and  Protestants  alike.  I 
very  earnestly  hope  that  what  I  say  will  appeal  to  all  good 
Americans. 


218    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Mr.  John  Callan  O'Laughlin  at  the  same  time 
cabled  the  following  statement  to  the  New  York 
Times: 

Familiar  as  I  am  with  all  the  facts,  and  looking  at  his  action 
from  the  viewpoint  of  an  American  Catholic,  I  personally 
feel  that  any  other  action  Colonel  Roosevelt  might  have 
taken  would  have  resulted  in  the  humiliation  not  only  of 
himself  but  of  the  American  people,  Catholic  as  well  as  Pro 
testant,  and  would  have  established  an  unwise  precedent  of 
serious  consequences  in  the  future. 

The  controversy  was  clearly  understood  by 
ecclesiastics,  in  Italy  and  other  parts  of  Europe, 
to  be  one  not  between  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  the  Pope 
but  between  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Cardinal  Merry 
del  Val,  the  Papal  Secretary  of  State.  Merry  del 
Val  was  not  only  a  prelate  but  an  astute  and  able 
politician.  I  have  always  felt  that  he  drew  swords 
with  Mr.  Roosevelt  in  order  to  make  a  test  of  the 
question  whether  he  was  not  more  skilful  than  the 
American  who  had  come  to  Europe  with  such  a 
reputation  as  a  political  manager.  The  test  was  a 
complete  one  and  showed  that  the  Cardinal  was 
out-generaled. 

In  Vienna,  the  capital  of  the  most  ultramontane 
country  in  Europe,  only  a  comparatively  few  days 
after  the  Vatican  episode,  the  Papal  Nuncio  at  that 
capital  appeared  at  a  reception  given  in  honour  of 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          219 

Mr.  Roosevelt,  and  made  this  appearance  in  his 
official  ecclesiastical  robes.  This  was  recognized 
in  Vienna  and  elsewhere  as  a  semi-official  intimation 
that  the  high  priests  of  the  Church  believed  that 
Mr.  Roosevelt  was  right  and  Merry  del  Val  wrong. 
Immediately  after  this  reception  Roosevelt  called 
officially  on  the  Papal  Nuncio  who  had  returned 
to  his  palace.  This  exchange  of  courtesies  created 
considerable  discussion  and  comment  in  the  news 
papers.  By  many  it  was  expected  that  the  Nuncio 
would  be  visited  with  some  sort  of  discipline  from 
the  Vatican.  He  was  not,  however;  and  those 
who  knew  the  inside  of  church  politics  said  that 
it  was  the  method  which  the  Pope  took  to  indicate 
that  he  did  not  wholly  approve  of  Merry  del  Val's 
management  of  the  affair. 

There  were  certain  echoes  of  the  controversy 
during  the  rest  of  the  journey  through  Europe. 
At  Porto  Maurizio  the  distinguished  novelist  and 
poet,  Antonio  Fogazzaro,  who  died  the  following 
year,  called  upon  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  had  a  long 
and  quiet  personal  interview  with  him.  Fogazzaro, 
a  devout  Roman  Catholic,  had  two  or  three  years 
earlier  published  his  novel,  "The  Saint" — which 
dealt  with  the  question  of  Modernism  and  was 
read  around  the  world.  This  book  was  distinctly 
religious  in  spirit  but  also  distinctly  liberal  in  its 


220    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

theology.  Because  of  its  support  of  the  Modern 
ist  movement  it  had  been  placed  upon  the  Index 
Expurgatorius  and  the  author  disciplined  by  the 
Church.  At  the  time  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  visit 
Fogazzaro  had  made  his  submission  and  had  been 
taken  back  into  full  communion.  After  Fogazzaro' s 
call  I  walked  back  with  him  to  the  town — Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  were  staying  with  Mrs.  Roose 
velt's  sister  at  her  villa  on  an  outlying  hillside — 
and  he  told  me  that  because  of  his  own  somewhat 
delicate  position  in  the  Church  and  because  of  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  controversy  with  the  Vatican  he  had  felt 
it  necessary  to  ask  his  bishop  whether  he  might 
make  this  personal  call  on  the  ex-President,  and 
his  bishop  had  told  him  to  go  by  all  means.  Later 
on  in  the  journey  two  or  three  Philippine  friars 
had  private  interviews  with  Mr.  Roosevelt  with 
episcopal  permission.  These  incidents  confirm 
the  opinion  which  I  have  already  expressed  that  the 
sympathies  of  many  of  the  influential  dignitaries 
of  the  Church  were  with  Mr.  Roosevelt  rather 
than  with  the  pontifical  Secretary  of  State. 

Although  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  not  received  at 
the  Vatican  he  was  received  with  great  cordiality 
at  the  Quirinal.  The  King  of  Italy,  Victor  Eman- 
uel  III,  was  the  first  of  a  considerable  company 
of  European  monarchs  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  met 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          221 

on  this  tour.  It  was  quite  apparent  that  the  kings 
liked  him.  At  all  events,  after  the  formal  and 
punctilious  hospitalities  had  been  fulfilled  they 
all,  without  exception,  went  out  of  their  way  to 
show  him  personal  attention.  There  was  some 
thing  about  his  personality  that  attracted  them. 
European  kings  have  not  always  had  an  entirely 
happy  time  even  in  days  of  peace.  Their  relations 
with  their  fellowmen  are  necessarily  circumscribed 
and  often  artificial.  With  Roosevelt  it  was  as 
though  they  said  to  themselves:  "Here  is  a  real 
man  that  we  can  meet,  talk  to,  and  associate  with 
as  men,  not  kings.  He  won't  kowtow  to  us  and 
he  won't  embarrass  us."  There  was  really  an 
element  of  pathos  in  it. 

When  Mr.  Roosevelt  came  home  he  was  ac 
cused,  during  the  Progressive  campaign,  by  some 
of  his  silliest  opponents,  of  an  ambition  to  become 
king  of  America.  His  comment  on  these  foolish 
critics  was:  "I  know  kings  and  they  don't.  A 
king  is  a  kind  of  cross  between  a  vice-president 
and  a  leader  of  the  Four  Hundred.  I  have  been 
vice-president,  and  know  how  hollow  the  honour 
is,  and  I  have  never  had  any  desire  to  be  a  leader 
of  the  Four  Hundred ! "  There  was  nothing  of  per 
sonal  criticism  in  Roosevelt's  democratic  estimate 
of  kingship.  Indeed,  he  was  drawn  to  the  King  of 


222    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Italy  because  of  the  latter's  democratic  character, 
which  later,  during  the  European  war,  was  respected 
and  honoured  by  all  the  peoples  of  the  Allies.  After 
meeting  Victor  Emanuel  somewhat  informally 
Mr.  Roosevelt  came  back  to  the  hotel  one  night 
and  said  to  me:  " I  like  the  King.  He  is  a  genuine 
man — the  kind  of  man  who  could  carry  his  own 
ward  in  an  election!"  That  the  feeling  was 
reciprocated  was  disclosed  by  an  amusing  incident. 
The  King  desired  to  have  Mr.  Roosevelt  visit 
the  famous  Italian  cavalry  school  in  the  neighbour 
hood  of  Rome,  the  Italian  cavalry  being  among 
the  most  expert  war  horsemen  in  the  world.  An 
appointment  was  made,  and  on  the  day  and  the 
hour  named  I  was  awaiting  in  the  lobby  of  our 
hotel  for  the  automobile  to  come  for  Mr.  Roosevelt. 
The  hotel  was  a  quiet  and  pleasant  one,  much 
frequented  by  certain  diplomats  and  functionaries, 
but  was  not  one  of  the  ultra-fashionable  caravan 
saries  of  the  city.  At  the  appointed  hour  a  hand 
some  limousine  drove  up  with  a  liveried  chauffeur 
and  footman.  The  King  with  his  aide,  the  latter 
in  his  military  uniform,  alighted  and  came  into  the 
lobby  of  the  hotel.  The  effect  was  electrical.  The 
portier  or  doorman,  the  liftman,  the  manager,  and 
the  head  waiter  almost  prostrated  themselves  in 
their  ecstasy  of  surprise  and  delight  at  the  honour 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          223 

thus  paid  to  their  establishment.  The  King  waited 
and  drove  Mr.  Roosevelt  off  in  great  glee.  I 
doubt  if  the  King  had  ever  visited  a  hotel  in  Rome 
in  such  fashion  before.  At  all  events,  we  learned 
afterward  that  the  visit  greatly  enhanced  the 
reputation  of  the  hotel  and  were  amused  to  hear 
that  the  proprietor  had  instituted  a  suit  against  the 
Paris  Herald  for  saying  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  a 
guest  at  some  other  hostelry,  thus  depriving  him, 
the  owner  of  the  only  genuine  Roosevelt  stopping 
place,  of  the  important  advertising  benefit  which  he 
alleged  that  Mr.  Roosevelt's  visit  conferred. 

After  a  strenuous  week  in  Rome — which  had  been 
preceded  by  a  fortnight  of  exhausting  sight-seeing 
and  speech-making  in  Egypt— Mr.  Roosevelt  went 
to  Porto  Maurizio,  as  I  have  already  said,  for  a  visit 
to  Mrs.  Roosevelt's  sister  and  to  enjoy  a  well- 
earned  vacation.  Porto  Maurizio  is  a  small  but 
ancient  and  picturesque  Italian  city  on  the  shore  of 
the  Mediterranean  not  far  from  the  French  frontier. 
Behind  it  lie  hills  and  valleys  thick  with  olive 
trees  and  vineyards,  and  still  farther  back  is  a  fine 
range  of  mountains,  capped  with  snow  at  the  season 
of  the  year  when  Roosevelt  made  his  visit.  Every 
where  are  roads  and  paths  enticing  to  the  walker 
and  affording  a  constant  succession  of  beautiful 
views  of  the  characteristic  Italian  landscape. 


224    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

The  pleasant  villa  of  Mrs.  Roosevelt's  sister, 
Miss  Carow,  stands  in  a  flowery  garden  on  a 
hillside  overlooking  the  sea.  It  was  an  ideal  place 
for  a  rest.  But  in  the  lexicon  of  the  cable,  the 
telegraph,  and  the  post-offices  there  is  no  such 
word  as  "rest";  the  eagerly  anticipated  vacation 
was  broken  into  by  a  procession  of  messengers 
bringing  communications — some,  it  is  true,  im 
portant,  but  most  of  them  of  the  greatest  unimport 
ance — who  trooped  to  the  "Villa  Magna  Quies" 
(which  by  a  curious  irony  of  fate  means  "Villa 
of  Great  Quiet")  at  literally  all  hours  of  the  day 
and  night.  Most  of  these  communications  were 
appeals  for  help  in  private  cases  or  public  affairs, 
or  for  political  and  personal  advice,  or  to  make 
engagements  for  lectures  and  speeches  on  Roose 
velt's  return  to  America. 

Speaking  of  these  letters  Roosevelt  said  to  me : 
"These  good  people  have  expectations  as  to  what 
I  can  do  that  would  not  be  justified  if  I  were 
George  Washington,  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  the 
Angel  Gabriel  all  rolled  into  one."  Indeed, 
during  his  entire  European  tour  the  number  and 
character  of  the  appeals  that  were  made  to  him 
were  almost  incredible.  It  was  half  amusing 
and  half  exasperating  to  see  how  much  of  the 
time  of  an  already  over-driven  man  was  taken 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          225 

up  in  answering  epistolary  demands  and  requests 
for  interviews. 

The  letters  ranged  from  applications  for  auto 
graphs,  stamps,  and  picture  postal  cards  to  in 
quiries  as  to  his  views  on  the  Bacon-Shakespeare 
controversy;  or  for  his  opinion  on  the  Referendum 
as  applied  to  the  matter  of  municipal  expenditure; 
or  for  a  description  of  a  special  kind  of  African 
antelope  because  "the  pupils  in  this  school  would 
find  it  interesting";  or  for  an  article  for  an  Amer 
ican  college  paper  on  "Politics  as  a  Career  for 
Young  Men  of  Means";  or,  from  a  Hungarian 
editor,  for  a  paper  about  "Hungarian  Emigration 
to  the  United  States";  or  for  a  review  of  a  book  of 
poems  which  was  sent  by  the  author;  or  for  a 
"brief  article"  for  a  young  men's  lyceum  on  the 
question  of  "International  Peace."  I  specify 
these  because  it  happened  that  every  one  of  these 
requests  was  contained  in  one  morning's  mail. 

With  regard  to  this  aspect  of  the  trip  I  find  the 
following  in  my  journal,  written  at  Budapest  in 
April,  1910: 

Even  while  he  was  in  Africa  Mr.  Roosevelt  received  re 
quests  that,  without  exaggeration,  may  be  called  appalling 
in  their  number  and  character.  A  favourite  request  was  for 
tigers'  claws,  the  writers  being  in  beautiful  ignorance  of  the 
fact  that  no  tigers  are  found  in  Africa.  Other  unknown  cor 
respondents  frequently  asked  for  lions'  claws,  apparently  not 


226    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

understanding  that  to  take  off  the  claws  of  course  ruins  the 
skin,  so  that  each  request  was  practically  that  Mr.  Roosevelt 
should  go  out  and  kill  a  lion  exclusively  for  the  benefit  of  a 
correspondent  of  whose  previous  existence  he  had  never 
heard.  He  was  appealed  to  for  monkeys,  parrots,  and  lion 
cubs  by  other  well-meaning  people;  one  gentleman  wanted  a 
pair  of  small  elephants,  another  a  pair  of  zebras,  another  a 
25opound  snake — these  requests  evidently  being  made  in 
bland  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  to  meet  them  would  have 
demanded  a  totally  different  type  of  expedition,  especially 
equipped  at  a  cost  of  many  thousands  of  dollars,  to  catch  wild 
animals  for  the  purpose  of  distributing  them  gratis  to  un 
known  individuals.  As  for  requests  for  horns  and  skins  on 
the  part  of  men  who  apparently  thought  that  the  expedition 
was  conducted  on  a  broad  eleemosynary  basis,  they  were 
legion — one  man  standing  out  above  his  fellows  because  of 
his  modest  request  for  "enough  leopard  skins  to  make  an 
overcoat"! 

All  sorts  of  things  are  sent  for  Roosevelt's  inspection  or 
approval,  or  to  reinforce  a  request  for  his  special  aid.  Birth 
certificates,  university  diplomas,  and  papers  of  this  kind 
which  are  of  real  value  to  the  people  who  send  them  are  for 
warded  to  him  by  writers  who  apparently  suppose  that  he  has 
nothing  to  do  but  to  make  parcels  and  packages  and  buy 
postage  stamps.  In  Austria  one  lady  inclosed  some  well- 
worn  newspaper  clippings  evidently  taken  from  her  most 
precious  archives,  one  of  them  being  an  obituary  notice  of  her 
late  husband  and  the  other  a  description  of  the  costume  she 
wore  when  she  was  presented  some  years  ago  at  one  of  the 
royal  courts  of  Europe.  Another  lady,  a  Russian,  mailed  to 
Mr.  Roosevelt  some  papers  connected  with  her  son's  univer 
sity  career,  and  because  she  did  not  get  a  personal  reply  by 
return  of  mail  called  at  the  hotel  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morn 
ing  in  a  state  of  great  agitation  which  was  really  pathetic  to 
behold.  A  Hungarian  artist  sent  a  registered  package  con 
taining  a  pen-and-ink  portrait  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          227 

which  he  had  made  with  indescribable  toil  by  shading  the 
microscopic  letters  forming  a  biographical  account  in  three 
thousand  words  of  the  Emperor's  career.  In  the  package 
was  a  large  hand  magnifying  glass  loaned  for  the  purpose  of 
examining  the  portrait,  which  the  artist  hoped  would  induce 
Mr.  Roosevelt  to  give  him  a  commission  for  a  similar  portrait 
of  "the  illustrious  ex- President."  Of  course  all  these  things 
have  to  be  carefully  sifted  out,  preserved,  and  returned,  to  do 
which  involves  an  annoying  expenditure  of  time  and  labour. 

I  suppose  that  the  daily  correspondence  of  any  well-known 
public  man  would  furnish  similar  displays  of  the  curious 
workings  of  certain  human  minds. 

While  I  was  in  the  act  of  writing  the  words  of  the  previous 
sentence  a  hall-boy  of  the  hotel  presented  me  with  twelve 
visiting-cards,  twelve  letters,  and  four  telegrams  for  Mr. 
Roosevelt,  who  at  the  moment  is  out  inspecting  the  famous 
Agricultural  Museum  of  Budapest.  These  communica 
tions  constitute  a  sort  of  light  afternoon  supplement  to  the 
daily  batch  of  letters,  the  majority  of  which  arrive  in  the 
morning  hours.  Of  the  telegrams  one  is  in  French  and  one  in 
Hungarian  or  in  German.  Of  course  the  Hungarian  cor 
respondence  has  to  be  specially  translated  before  it  can  be 
attended  to,  as  none  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  immediate  party  has 
had  time  between  letters  to  learn  what  is  perhaps  the  most 
difficult  of  all  modern  European  languages.  One  letter,  how 
ever,  is  from  an  entirely  unknown  correspondent  in  England. 
"I  write  to  ask,"  she  says,  "if  you  would  feel  inclined  to  help 
me.  I  am  the  widow  of  a  clergyman,  and  since  his  death  I 
have  had  heavy  expenses  which  I  cannot  meet  on  my  small 
income,  but  if  I  could  get  clear  of  debt  I  think  my  daughter 
and  I  could  manage.  I  am  trying  to  get  three  hundred 
pounds  to  relieve  me  of  my  burden." 

It  is  such  correspondence  as  this  that  makes  it  impossible 
for  a  man  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  public  position  to  enjoy  a  real 
vacation  unless  he  is  absolutely  cut  off  from  the  post-office, 
the  telegraph,  and  the  telephone. 


228    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

When  the  University  of  Christiania  conferred 
upon  Mr.  Roosevelt  the  honorary  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Philosophy — a  degree  which  had  never 
been  conferred  before  upon  any  person  by  the 
University — Professor  Broch,  Dean  of  the  Faculty 
of  Philosophy,  likened  Mr.  Roosevelt  to  a  railway 
engine  whose  course  is  concealed  from  the  near-by 
spectator  by  a  cloud  of  dust  and  smoke,  but  which, 
nevertheless,  pursues  its  course  with  rapidity  and 
power  toward  a  definite  goal,  leaving  behind  it  a 
straight  and  shining  track.  This  semi-humorous 
analogy  was  not  inappropriate  to  Mr.  Roosevelt's 
journey  through  Europe.  In  my  journal  at  the 
time  I  wrote: 

It  is  almost  impossible  for  one  who  has  been  close  to  Mr. 
Roosevelt  in  this  remarkable  and  unprecedented  journey  to 
appreciate  its  significance  himself  or  to  give  any  adequate 
idea  to  American  readers  of  what  it  has  meant  to  the  people 
of  Europe.  If  the  reader  will  take  a  map  and,  with  a 
pencil,  trace  the  course  of  this  journey,  some  faint  notion 
may  be  obtained  of  what  Mr.  Roosevelt  has  done  physically 
in  his  six  weeks'  tour  between  the  dates  of  April  2d,  when  he 
landed  in  Naples,  and  May  1 5th,  when  he  left  Berlin  for  Lon 
don.  In  miles  alone  the  lineal  distance  which  he  has  covered 
is  prodigious — Naples  to  Rome,  Rome  to  Genoa,  Genoa  to 
Porto  Maurizio,  Porto  Maurizio  back  to  Genoa,  Genoa  to 
Venice,  Venice  to  Vienna,  Vienna  to  Budapest,  Budapest  to 
Paris,  Paris  to  Brussels,  Brussels  to  The  Hague,  The  Hague 
to  Amsterdam,  Amsterdam  to  Copenhagen,  Copenhagen  to 
Christiania,  Christiania  to  Stockholm,  and  Stockholm  to  Ber 
lin!  When  it  is  considered  that  in  each  of  these  chief  stopping 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          229 

places  there  were  dinners,  receptions,  official  festivities,  pri 
vate  and  personal  calls,  academic  celebrations — and  in  four 
cities  great  public  addresses — besides  an  uncounted  number 
of  greetings  from  and  extemporaneous  speeches  to  people 
gathered  at  railway  stations,  in  schoolhouses,  and  in  the 
village  streets,  it  is  not  surprising  that  it  is  difficult  in  the 
midst  of  it  all  to  form  an  intelligent  impression  of  the  signi 
ficance  and  importance  of  such  a  journey  in  their  correct 
proportion. 

The  cumulative  effect  of  the  extraordinary 
pilgrimage  was  a  very  distinct  impression  that  the 
people,  the  political  leaders,  and  the  rulers  of 
Europe  recognized  in  Roosevelt  a  personification 
of  the  moral  power  of  human  nature — the  power 
not  merely  to  appreciate  high  ideals  but  to  put 
them  into  practical  effect  in  every-day  life.  It  is 
a  painful  thing  to  have  to  admit  that  so  many 
good  people  are  uninteresting  and  so  many  inter 
esting  people  are  not  always  good.  Roosevelt 
was  both  thoroughly  good  and  thoroughly  interest 
ing.  In  some  respects  his  European  tour  may  be 
said  to  have  been  a  missionary  journey  in  behalf 
of  political  and  social  morality;  yet  it  was  full  of 
gayety  and  vivacity  of  life  and  he  enjoyed  its 
colour,  its  movement,  its  social  festivities,  and  its 
good  living  with  as  much  appreciation  as  a  bon 
vivant.  To  quote  again  from  my  journal: 

The  common  people  as  well  as  many  of  the  most  distin 
guished  personages  of  Europe  have  not  merely  shown  admira- 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

tion  for  Roosevelt's  character  but  have  found  real  fascination 
in  his  personality.  People  not  merely  want  to  see  him  out 
of  curiosity,  but  when  they  have  once  seen  him  they  want 
to  be  with  him  and  talk  to  him.  Everywhere  the  most  strik 
ing  proofs  have  been  given  that  he  possesses  in  a  very  marked 
degree  what  issomewhat  tritely  called" personal  magnetism." 

In  Porto  Maurizio,  for  instance,  both  the  popular 
and  the  official  receptions  of  Mr.  Roosevelt  were 
very  remarkable  in  their  recognition  of  his  moral 
leadership.  The  town  was  placarded  with  posters, 
issued  by  the  municipal  authorities  in  the  Italian 
language,  in  which  a  welcome  was  expressed  to  Mr. 
Roosevelt  as  "the  promoter  of  international  peace 
and  the  champion  of  human  fraternity  and  solida 
rity/'  When  he  appeared  on  the  streets  the  citizens 
— especially  the  working  people  and  the  peasants — 
bombarded  his  carriage  with  flowers,  so  that  it  was 
filled  almost  to  overflowing.  People  leaned  from 
the  third-story  windows  of  what  in  New  York 
we  should  call  tenement  houses  to  throw  down  their 
home-made  floral  tokens.  One  day  when  he  drove 
out  into  the  country  I  saw  an  old  peasant  woman 
standing  by  her  cottage  door  eagerly  waiting  the 
approach  of  the  carriage,  and  when,  with  a  trem 
bling  hand,  she  tossed  to  him  a  bunch  of  flowers, 
there  was  pinned  to  a  large  green  leaf  a  scrap  of 
paper,  and  on  it,  written  with  painful  effort,  the 
words:  "Viva,  viva,  viva  Roosevelt!''  This  old 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          231 

woman  had  never  seen  him  before,  would  never 
see  him  again;  she  received,  in  acknowledgment, 
only  a  smile  and  a  lift  of  the  hat;  and  yet  it  was 
pathetically  evident  that  she  had  been  eager  to 
pay  her  slight  tribute  to  the  man  who  stood,  in  her 
mind,  as  "the  champion  of  human  fraternity." 

An  incident  in  Paris  showed  in  a  delightful  way 
Roosevelt's  hold  upon  the  ordinary  man — upon 
those  whom  Lincoln  called  "the  plain  people." 
A  feature  of  the  Paris  programme  was  a  review 
of  some  French  troops  at  Vincennes.  Mr.  Roose 
velt  went  out  to  the  field  with  the  American  Am 
bassador,  Mr.  Bacon,  and  the  French  Ambassador 
to  Washington,  M.  Jusserand.  Each  of  the  three 
was,  of  course,  dressed  in  the  conventional  frock 
coat  and  high  hat,  but  the  general  officer  in  com 
mand  asked  Mr.  Roosevelt  if  he  would  not  like 
to  ride.  He  quickly  responded  by  mounting  a 
horse  with  no  opportunity  of  changing  his  costume 
beyond  the  addition  of  a  pair  of  leggings  which 
an  orderly  took  off  and  placed  at  Mr.  Roosevelt's 
disposal.  The  review  was  a  successful  and  pic 
turesque  one.  Some  days  later,  while  in  Holland, 
Mr.  Roosevelt  received  from  the  enlisted  men 
the  following  letter,  which  bore  in  the  upper  left- 
hand  corner  a  picture  of  a  horse  of  the  French 
cavalry: 


232    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Vincennes,  le  27  Avril,  1910. 
Monsieur  le  President  Roosevelt: 

Nous  sommes  les  cavaliers  du  2e  Escadron  du  23*  Dragons, 
et  c'est  le  cheval  Peppino  de  chez  nous  que  vous  avez  monte 
pour  la  manoeuvre  d'aujourd'hui.  Nous  en  avons  etc  tres 
fiers  et  Pescadron  ne  1'oublira  jamais.  Nous  respecterons 
ce  cheval  avec  fidelite.  Nous  nous  permettons  de  vous  ecrire 
pour  que  vous  le  sachiez.  Nous  n'oublierons  jamais  non 
plus  que  nous  vous  avons  vu. 

Nous  sommes  vos  cavaliers  respectueux  et  devoues, 
(Signe):  LES  CAVALIERS  DU  2C  ESCADRON, 

Qui  AIMENT  L'AMERIQUE. 

Or  in  English: 

Mr.  President: 

We  are  the  troopers  of  the  2nd  Squadron  of  the  23rd  Dra 
goons,  and  this  is  our  horse  Peppino  which  you  rode  to-day  at 
the  manoeuvres.  We  were  very  proud  of  it,  and  the  squadron 
will  never  forget  it.  We  venture  to  write  to  you  to  assure  you 
that  we  shall  take  care  of  this  horse  hereafter  with  the  utmost 
respect.  Nor  shall  we  ever  forget  that  we  have  seen  you. 

We  are,  respectfully  and  devotedly, 

The  Cavalrymen  of  the  2nd  Squadron 

Who  Admire  America. 

These  soldiers  from  the  ranks,  representing,  as 
the  phraseology  of  their  letter  shows,  the  modest 
homes  of  France,  were  not  the  less  loyal  to  their 
own  country  because  in  so  spontaneous  and  simple 
a  fashion,  with  no  personal  axe  to  grind,  they  ex 
pressed  their  appreciation  of  the  human  qualities 
which  Mr.  Roosevelt  represented. 

There  is  no  room  in  this  impressionistic  sketch 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          233 

to  give  a  detailed  narrative  of  the  visits  to  Belgium, 
to  Holland,  to  Denmark,  to  Norway,  and  to  Swe 
den.  In  each  of  these  countries  Mr.  Roosevelt  was 
received  with  the  most  friendly  courtesy  and  atten 
tion  by  the  rulers  and  by  the  people  themselves.  In 
Brussels  he  and  his  family  dined  with  the  King 
and  Queen;  in  Holland  they  lunched  with  the 
Queen  and  her  Consort;  in  Denmark  they  were 
the  guests  of  the  Crown  Prince;  in  Christiania  they 
were  the  guests  of  the  King  and  the  Queen  at  the 
Royal  Palace;  and  in  Stockholm,  the  guests  of  the 
Crown  Prince  and  the  Crown  Princess  at  the  Castle. 
The  three  great  Scandinavian  cities  were  beautifully 
decorated,  and  the  hospitality  both  of  the  citizens 
and  of  the  royal  families  was  of  the  most  generous 
character.  Special  "saloon  carriages"  (private  cars, 
as  we  call  them)  and  dining-cars,  and  in  some  cases 
special  trains,  were  placed  at  the  disposal  of  Mr. 
Roosevelt,  his  family,  and  his  party  by  the  govern 
ment  railways  of  France,  Belgium,  Holland,  Den 
mark,  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Germany;  in  the 
three  Scandinavian  kingdoms,  in  addition  to  am 
bassadorial  and  royal  dinners,  splendid  banquets 
were  given  in  his  honour  by  large  bodies  of  citizens; 
and  everywhere  crowds  of  people  lined  the  streets — 
eager  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  him  and  to  cheer  him 
as  he  passed.  This  rather  bald  account  of  what 


234    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

was  really  a  beautiful,  generous,  spontaneous,  and 
in  many  respects  unprecedented  hospitality  is 
excusable  only  on  the  ground  that  American 
readers  ought  to  know  what  friendliness  was  shown 
by  the  European  peoples  and  governments  to  one 
whom  they  regarded  as  the  representative  of  the 
best  type  of  Americanism.  Those  Americans  who 
had  the  pleasure  of  being  near-at-hand  spectators 
of  these  greetings  learned  that  warm-hearted 
enthusiasm  is  not  confined  to  races  of  southern 
blood;  neither  Italy  nor  France  could  have  outdone 
the  Viking  cities  of  Scandinavia  in  either  the  public 
or  private  manifestations  of  approval  of  their  dis 
tinguished  guest. 

Among  my  papers  I  find  the  following  carefully- 
worked-out  itinerary  and  time-table  of  the  journey 
from  Brussels  to  Copenhagen.  It  required,  of 
course,  much  correspondence  and  many  conferences 
with  officials,  and  may  give  the  reader  an  impres 
sion  that  such  a  tour  as  Roosevelt's  was  not  alto 
gether  a  pleasure  jaunt. 

THE  HAGUE  AND  AMSTERDAM  TRIP 

FROM  BRUSSELS  TAKE  ONLY  IN  TRAIN  THE  LUGGAGE  WHICH  WILL 
BE  REQUIRED  FOR  THE  FIRST  DAY,  SEND  THE  OTHER  LUGGAGE 
THROUGH,  BUYING  VALET*S  TICKET  RIGHT  THROUGH  TO  THE 
HAGUE,  AND  CHECKING  ALL  THE  BAGGAGE  ON  THIS  TICKET. 

Leave  Brussels  7.53  A.  M.  Friday,  April  29th,  on  private 
car  attached  to  ordinary  train.  Meet  special  train  coming 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          235 

from  Holland  at  Roosendaal,  at  9.53  A.  M.  and  have  carnage 
attached  to  it.  Reach  Arnheim  at  12.30.  Mr.  Roosevelt 
and  family  then  motor  to  Het  Loo  (the  Palace)  arriving  at 
one  o'clock,  where  they  will  lunch  with  the  Queen  at  1.30, 
Mr.  Roosevelt  will  afterward  leave  Het  Loo  (Apeldoorn 
Station)  at  3.40,  on  private  car  already  arranged  for,  arriving 
Amsterdam  at  5.05.  (Mrs.  and  Miss  Ethel  Roosevelt  will  go 
to  Hotel  des  Indes,  The  Hague:  Mr.  Beaupre  will  arrange 
their  passage  there.)  Mr.  Roosevelt  will  dine  with  the  Bur 
gomaster,  and  afterward  a  reception  will  be  held  at  the  house 
of  Mr.  A.  J.  Cremer.  Leave  Amsterdam  the  same  evening 
on  a  special  coach  attached  to  the  ordinary  train,  or  on  a  spe 
cial  train,  arriving  at  The  Hague  (Hotel  des  Indes)  the  same 
(Friday)  evening.  Mr.  Beaupre  is  arranging  the  train  from 
Amsterdam  to  The  Hague. 

Saturday,  April  jotk.  Received  by  Queen  Mother  at  12 
o'clock.  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  family  lunch  with  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs.  Dine  at  Legation  at  8  o'clock.  Reception 
at  10  o'clock.  Return  to  Hotel  des  Indes. 

Monday,  May  2nd.  Arrive  Hamburg  6.33  A.  M.,  leaving 
again  at  7.05  A.  M.  and  arriving  Copenhagen  4.48  P.  M.  Met 
at  Station  by  Crown  Prince.  He  will  take  Mr.  Roosevelt 
and  family  in  carriages  to  Palace.  Messrs.  Abbott  and  Har 
per  will  stay  at  Hotel  d'Angleterre.  Mr.  Egan  will  come  to 
Palace  at  which  presentation  has  been  held,  and  he  will  take 
Mr.  Roosevelt  to  meet  Prince  Vlademir  and  Prince  Hans. 
Afterward  return  to  Palace  and  dine  with  King.  At  9.30 
to  10.30,  at  the  Legation,  will  be  an  American  Reception. 
Mrs.  Roosevelt  will  be  provided  with  a  bouquet,  so  that  she 
will  not  be  expected  to  shake  hands.  Return  to  Palace  to 
sleep. 

May  ^rd.  Tuesday:  Leave  by  automobile  at  8  A.  M.  Visit 
a  Model  Dairy,  a  Model  Farm,  and  a  Model  "Small-Holder." 
Then  to  Roskilde  to  see  the  Cathedral,  with  the  Royal  burial 
places.  From  thence  to  Hollerd,  to  see  the  Castle  of  Fred- 
eriksburg,  which  contains  the  National  Gallery,  and  from 


236    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

there,  via  Fredensborg,  to  Elsinore.  Arrive  at  Elsinore  about 
12  o'clock,  and  go  aboard  the  Scandinavian-American  fast 
passenger  boat,  Queen  Maud,  to  Copenhagen,  which  will 
enable  Mr.  Roosevelt  to  see  the  beautiful  coast  of  Sjaelland. 
Arrive  in  Copenhagen  at  about  2  o'clock.  At  5.45  Munici 
pality  dinner,  at  which  no  ladies  will  be  present,  in  view  of 
the  early  departure  that  evening.  Depart  from  Copenhagen 
for  Christiania  at  9.05  P.M. 

To  this  time-table  I  append  the  account  which 
my  friend  Maurice  Egan,  American  Minister  to 
Denmark  during  Roosevelt's  visit,  has  given  me 
of  some  of  the  details  and  effects  of  the  ex-Presi 
dent's  visit  to  Scandinavia: 

When  it  was  finally  settled  that  Colonel  Roosevelt  should 
come  to  Europe,  the  three  Scandinavian  consuls — at  this 
time  I  happened  to  be  American  Minister  in  Denmark — 
showed  the  most  ardent  interest.  Denmark  was  especially 
interested  because  to  the  Danes  Mr.  Roosevelt  represented 
a  tendency  toward  that  revolt  against  plutocracy  which  many 
of  the  Danes  believed  to  be  a  menace  to  the  best  institutions 
of  our  country.  He  was  also,  without  doubt,  the  most  pic 
turesque  figure  in  the  world  at  that  time.  As  the  Minister 
I  was  besieged  with  all  kinds  of  questions  as  to  whether  Mr. 
Roosevelt  would  come  or  not.  He  made  it  so  plain  in  many 
public  utterances  that  I  was  a  friend  of  his,  and  everybody  in 
Denmark  knew  that  I  had  been  appointed  by  him,  so  that  the 
Danes  felt  it  was  my  duty  to  induce  him  to  visit  their  coun 
try. 

One  day,  speaking  to  my  friend  and  colleague,  the  Nor 
wegian  Minister,  I  was  astonished  to  discover  that  he  felt 
that  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  not  been  exactly  polite  to  the  Nobel 
Prize  Committee  when  he  had  refused  to  give — or  postponed 
giving — the  customary  address  of  the  Nobel  Prize  men  at 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          237 

Christiania.  Following  this  hint,  which  was  very  delicately 
given,  I  made  some  further  investigations  and  discovered 
there  there  was  a  feeling  among  the  Norwegians  and  the 
Swedes  that  no  American  ought  to  be  offered  the  prize  since 
the  most  distinguished  of  Americans  had  rather  cavalierly 
refused  to  comply  with  the  traditional  condition.  I  said  to 
a  very  influential  member  of  the  Committee:  "If  I  had  any 
thing  to  do  with  the  Nobel  Prize  I  should  certainly  give  it  to 
either  Mr.  Elihu  Root  or  Mr.  Richard  Watson  Gilder." 
This  was  a  feeler.  "Oh,"  my  friend  said,  "I  do  not  think  it 
would  be  worth  while  to  name  any  American  for  that  prize 
now." 

Mr.  Roosevelt  I  knew  very  well  would  suffer  any  incon 
venience  rather  than  stand  in  the  way  of  any  fellow  American 
receiving  this  honour,  so  I  wrote  at  once  three  letters  to  be 
forwarded  to  him  in  Africa  by  various  people.  One  was,  I 
think,  to  our  Consul  at  Naples.  In  a  reasonable  time  his 
reply  came.  He  was  willing  to  give  me  a  day  or  so  at  Copen 
hagen.  Of  course,  this  was  not  enough.  When  I  considered 
the  presentation  to  the  royalties,  the  ceremonies  of  the  mu 
nicipalities,  the  various  courtesies  which  many  of  my  Danish 
friends  would  feel  it  their  duty  to  show  them,  I  was  in  despair. 
Besides,  I  must  secure  him  for  Christiania  first,  where  the 
great  question  of  the  Nobel  Prize  remained  to  be  settled.  I 
concealed  the  fact  from  my  friends  and  the  newspapers  that 
he  had  promised  to  come  to  Copenhagen  and  in  the  meantime 
extorted  a  promise  from  him  that  he  would  go  to  Christiania 
as  well.  I  communicated  his  determination  to  my  colleague, 
Mr.  Pierce,  at  Christiania  who  was  delighted  and  who  insisted 
in  giving  me  credit  for  Mr.  Roosevelt's  consent  at  the  Nor 
wegian  Court. 

A  short  time  after  this  came  a  note  from  Frederick  VIII 
asking  me  to  come  to  see  him.  I  presented  myself.  "My 
dear  Mr.  Minister,  "he  said,  "my  son  Haakon  tells  me  that  you 
have  induced  your  distinguished  patriot  to  go  to  Christiania. 
Why  cannot  you  induce  him  to  come  here?"  And  then  I 


238    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

answered:  "If  your  Majesty  wants  him  to  come  here  I  shall 
communicate  your  wish  to  Colonel  Roosevelt,  and  he  will 
consider  at  once  your  request  as  a  command."  The  King 
was  evidently  very  much  pleased  and  then  it  occurred  to  me 
that  I  might  just  as  well  make  Mr.  Roosevelt's  stay  in  Copen 
hagen  as  splendid  as  possible.  "I  regret  that  my  legation  is 

not  large  enough  for  many  guests "     "Ah,"  the  King 

interposed,  "I  shall  be  so  pleased  to  have  Colonel  Roosevelt 
here,  that  although  I  am  obliged  to  go  for  my  health  to  the 
Riviera  at  the  end  of  the  week  I  shall  command  my  son,  the 
Crown  Prince,  to  act  for  me  and  to  give  him  all  the  attention 
that  I  would  give  if  I  could  be  present  here."  Then  he  broke 
6ff.  "When  do  you  think  he  is  going  to  Germany  and  where 
do  you  think  his  Imperial  Majesty  will  lodge  him?"  "Ah, 
in  the  palace  at  Potsdam  I  am  sure,"  I  answered.  "I  can  do 
no  less,  and  I  should  like  to  do  more,"  his  Majesty  remarked; 
"I  shall  offer  him  and  his  family  the  palace  of  Christian  VII." 
This  I  knew  was  considered  a  great  honour,  as  nobody  but  a 
crowned  head  was  received  as  guest  in  this  palace;  King  Ed 
ward  and  Queen  Alexandra  had  been  its  last  occupants.  I 
at  once  telegraphed  this  to  Colonel  Roosevelt  and  asked  him 
for  more  time.  He  replied,  giving  me  a  day  or  two  more. 
After  that  it  was  my  business  to  excite  expectation,  which  the 
press  was  only  too  willing  to  do.  The  Crown  Prince  was  most 
enthusiastic  and,  through  the  amiability  of  the  Minister  of 
Commerce  I  managed  to  secure  all  the  properties,  rugs,  palms, 
etc.,  which  were  always  used  to  adorn  the  station  whenever 
royalty  appeared. 

The  question  of  ranking  Colonel  Roosevelt  was  a  serious 
one.  The  Court  Marshal  was  very  much  perturbed;  what 
rank  had  an  ex-President  of  the  United  States  in  his  own 
country?  As  a  colonel  he  would  hardly  be  visible  in  the 
galaxy  of  court  officials  who  would  certainly  be  present  at 
any  function  given  in  his  honour.  Throwing  aside  all  the 
prejudices  of  democracy  I  suggested  that  he  should  be  ranked 
as  the  late  Consort  of  Queen  Victoria  or  the  present  Prince 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          239 

Consort  of  the  Queen  of  Holland,  as  a  Royal  Highness.  Mrs. 
Roosevelt,  Ethel,  and  Kermit  were  equally  ranked,  and  Mr. 
Lawrence  Abbott,  of  whom  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  enthusiasti 
cally  written,Svas  put  down  as  a  visiting  Minister  Plenipoten 
tiary.  This  made  things  easy.  The  station  was  quite  as 
magnificent  as  it  had  been  when  the  Czar  of  Russia  or  the 
Kaiser  or  King  Edward  came;  our  Consul-General,  Mr.  Bond, 
saw  to  that! 

The  great  day  came;  Copenhagen  was  in  a  furore  of  ex 
pectation;  the  Crown  Prince,  accompanied  by  a  brilliant 
suite,  drove  to  the  station;  I  followed  at  a  reasonable  distance 
with  our  best  footmen  on  the  box  adorned  with  the  largest 
red,  white,  and  blue  cockades  we  had  ever  used;  my  wife  and 
daughter  were  too  fine  for  words!  The  Crown  Prince  oc 
cupied  the  centre  of  the  circle  and  the  dramatic  effect,  I  said 
to  myself,  was  going  to  be  worthy  of  the  occasion.  Suddenly, 
Colonel  Roosevelt  escaped  from  Mr.  Lawrence  Abbott's  guid 
ing  hand,  rushed  through  the  train,  and  descended  two  cars 
below  all  this  waiting  magnificence.  The  Crown  Prince,  the 
tallest  man  in  Europe,  with  the  longest  legs,  ran  down  the 
platform  to  meet  him;  and  after  that  we  all  went  helter  skel 
ter.  Colonel  Roosevelt  wore  an  army  coat  and  an  ancient 
sombrero.  He  seemed  pleased  beyond  words  to  see  us  all.  I 
presented  him  very  formally,  "Permit  me,  your  Royal  High 
ness,  to  present  to  you  His  Excellency  the  late  President  of 
the  United  States."  The  Crown  Prince  bowed,  shook  Mr. 
Roosevelt  warmly  by  the  hand,  and  then  Colonel  Roosevelt 
said,  "Now  I  have  lost  my  baggage.  Let's  go  and  look  for 
it."  The  Prince  was  very  much  amused  and  felt  that  here 
at  last  was  a  human  being.  Mr.  Lawrence  Abbott  was  the 
only  person  at  all  perturbed  by  this  incident  of  the  missing 
trunks,  for  which  he  was  in  no  wise  responsible;  so  we  left 
him,  ranking  as  he  did  as  a  Minister  Plenipotentiary,  to  look 
after  the  luggage! 

It  had  been  arranged  that  the  Crown  Prince  should  give  a 
gala  dinner  at  the  Court  to  be  followed  at  ten  o'clock  by  a 


24o    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

reception  at  the  American  Legation.  Neither  Colonel  Roose 
velt  nor  Mrs.  Roosevelt  seemed  especially  perturbed  about  the 
loss  of  their  evening  clothes  and  I  think  that  Kermit  and  Ethel 
would  have  been  glad  of  any  accident  that  kept  them  away 
from  ceremonies;  they  had  their  own  plans  which  had  nothing 
to  do  with  court  functions.  Colonel  Roosevelt  had  his  Nor 
folk  jacket  brushed,  Mrs.  Roosevelt  came  in  to  dinner  with 
the  Crown  Prince  looking  perfectly  gracious  and  at  ease  in  a 
travelling  suit,  and  the  dinner  proceeded  with  unusual  spirit 
and  gayety.  Royal  people  can  safely  be  trusted,  owing  to 
their  special  education,  to  smoothe  embarrassing  situations 
and  nobody  seemed  to  remember  whether  Mr.  Roosevelt  wore 
a  lounge  coat  or  a  uniform.  Mademoiselle  Wedel-Hainan  who 
was  one  of  the  Ladies  in  Waiting  to  the  old  Queen,  said :  "  It 
was" worth  while  to  see  how  simply  Mrs.  Roosevelt  acted  on 
this  occasion;  nobody  but  royalty  could  have.made  a  situation 
of  that  kind  go  off  so  well;  Queen  Alexandra  did  it  once  and 
just  in  the  same  way."  The  Crown  Princess  said  to  my  wife  : 
"As  Mrs.  Roosevelt  is  a  representative  American  woman 
nobody  after  this  can  ever  say  that  they  give  too  much  atten 
tion  to  dress.  How  embarrassing  it  would  have  been  for  us 
all  if  she  had  not  accepted  the  situation  in  such  a  perfectly 
charming  manner."  Of  course  all  Denmark  knew  the  cir 
cumstances  the  next  day  and  the  incident — trivial  as  it  may 
seem — added  a  new  ray  to  the  star  of  glory  of  the  visiting 
Americans.  Before  ten  o'clock  the  missing  trunks  arrived 
and  Mr.  Lawrence  Abbott,  who  was  determined  that  every 
thing  should  be  technically  correct,  was  happily  relieved. 

At  the  reception  at  our  legation  later  in  the  evening  Colonel 
and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  were  able  to  appear  in  the  usual  cere 
monial  garb.  We  managed  to  crowd  over  three  hundred 
persons  into  the  drawing  room  and  the  dining  room  and,  with 
a  little  prompting  as  to  what  language  you  should  speak  to 
each  person — Colonel  Roosevelt's  German  was  excellent  and 
his  French  very  fair — he  had  a  most  enjoyable  time  which 
was  reflected  in  the  faces  of  everybody  he  met.  He  said  the 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          241 

appropriate  thing,  being  very  receptive  to  any  hint  from  the 
Minister  who  stood  near  him  and  pleased  even  the  tenors  of 
the  opera  by  repeating  something  that  was  both  cordial  and 
appropriate. 

Altogether,  no  guest  in  Denmark  ever  left  such  an  impres 
sion  of  strength,  of  sincerity,  of  power  as  Mr.  Roosevelt  left. 
On  my  leaving  Denmark  last  year,  King  Christian,  formerly 
the  Crown  Prince  said,  most  pleasantly:  "Assure  Colonel 
Roosevelt  of  my  affectionate  esteem.  He  is  a  man." 

Until  Minister  Egan  gave  me  the  foregoing 
description,  while  I  was  preparing  this  chapter, 
I  was  unaware  that  I  had  any  standing  higher  than 
that  of  Secretary  of  Legation  while  on  this  journey. 
If  I  had  only  known  that  he  had  conferred  upon  me 
the  brevet  and  temporary  honour  of  a  plenipoten 
tiary  rank  it  would  have  saved  me  perhaps  one 
very  embarrassing  experience ! 

On  the  day  when  we  arrived  in  Christiania  a 
luncheon,  followed  by  a  reception,  was  given  at 
the  house  of  the  American  Minister,  Mr.  Peircc. 
They  were  attended  both  by  the  King  and  by  Mr. 
Roosevelt.  King  Haakon  of  Norway  is  a  fine 
specimen  of  a  man,  six  feet  or  a  little  over  in  height, 
of  a  well-shaped  and  athletic-looking  figure;  and 
his  frank,  open  face  bears  the  marks  of  strength,  re 
finement,  and  good  health.  His  Queen  is  the 
daughter  of  King  Edward  of  Great  Britain.  Hav 
ing  served  in  the  British  Navy,  King  Haakon  spoke 
English  perfectly.  I  left  the  reception  early  and 


242    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

went  up  to  the  sitting  room  or  salon  in  the  suite 
assigned  to  Mr.  Roosevelt  in  the  palace  and  began 
to  work  with  Harper  on  the  mail  and  other  matters 
connected  with  the  journey.  Before  long  the  door 
opened  and  the  King  entered.  I  recognized  him 
because  I  had  just  seen  him  at  the  reception; 
but  he  had  taken  off  his  frock  coat,  abandoned  his 
high  hat,  and  appeared  in  an  ordinary  suit  of  tweed 
— what  we  should  call  in  this  country  abusiness  suit. 
I  rose,  of  course,  and  he  began  to  talk  to  me  about 
some  details  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  further  journey  to 
Stockholm  for  which  the  King  wished  his  private 
saloon  railway  carriage  to  be  employed.  In  his 
hand  he  had  a  letter  about  it  which  he  gave  me 
with  some  instructions. 

Just  then  the  door  opened  again  and  in  blew 
Mr.  Roosevelt — I  do  not  know  what  other  verb  to 
use  to  describe  the  refreshing  breeziness  which 
was  characteristic  of  his  unexpected  appearance 
on  any  occasion.  He  still  had  on  his  frock  coat 
and  carried  his  high  hat  in  his  hand,  for  he  had  to 
stay  at  the  reception  until  it  was  all  over. 

The  King  was  almost  visibly  embarrassed.  It 
was  as  though  he  were  saying  to  himself:  "Now 
what  shall  I  do  to  entertain  this  apostle  of  the 
strenuous  life!"  He  remarked  after  a  slight  pause: 
"Colonel  Roosevelt,  wouldn't  you  like  a  cup  of 


AFRICAN  AND  «I|IOP£A)4  TOl)R 

tea  ? "  With  real  enthusiasm  the  Colonel  answered : 
"By  George,  your  Majesty,  the  very  thing  I 
should  like!"  While  Roosevelt  punctiliously  ob 
served  all  the  proprieties  in  his  royal  visits,  he 
was  perfectly  natural,  and  as  I  have  already  re 
marked,  the  kings  apparently  enjoyed  for  once 
having  a  free,  natural,  man-to-man  relationship 
with  a  fellow-being.  The  King  disappeared  and  in 
a  few  moments  the  folding  doors  were  opened  and 
there  in  an  adjoining  room  was  a  pleasant  tea-table, 
set  in  the  English  fashion,  round  which  we  all 
gathered. 

Mr.  Roosevelt — and  he  was  one  of  the  best  table- 
talkers  and  raconteurs  that  I  have  ever  listened 
to — told  stories  of  his  frontier  life  in  the  West.  I 
remember  that  he  gave  an  account  of  meeting  his 
friend  Seth  Bullock  over  the  dead  body  of  a  des 
perado  whom  they — as  sheriff  and  deputy  sheriff- 
were  both  pursuing  during  his  ranching  days. 
"Your  Majesty,"  he  said,  "is  sufficiently  familiar 
with  grouse  shooting  in  England  to  realize  that 
we  met  in  the  attitude  of  *My  bird,  I  believe'." 
He  told  other  tales  of  Seth  Bullock,  whom  he 
greatly  liked  and  respected,  and  said  that  he 
wished  the  King  could  meet  Bullock  as  a  fine  type 
of  western  American.  I  rather  think  the  King  did 
meet  him,  for — and  perhaps  this  afternoon  tea 


244    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

suggested  the  idea  to  Roosevelt — he  cabled  to  Seth 
Bullock  to  join  him  in  London.  This  Bullock  did; 
and  there,  with  Roosevelt  as  friend  and  cicerone, 
he  met  many  of  the  distinguished  people  of  the 
day. 

Now  that  night  a  splendid  state  dinner  was  given 
in  the  palace  in  honour  of  Mr.  Roosevelt.  The 
guests,  one  or  two  hundred  in  number,  under  the 
direction  of  the  Court  Marshal,  gathered  at  their 
places  in  the  great  state  dining  room.  It  was  a 
fine  company,  for  the  Scandinavians  are  splendid 
physical  specimens.  There  were,  of  course,  many 
army  and  navy  men  in  uniform  and  government 
officials  resplendent  with  orders. 

At  the  high  table,  arranged  like  the  speakers' 
table  at  an  American  banquet,  sat  the  royal  party 
consisting  of  the  King  with  Mrs.  Roosevelt  and 
the  Queen  with  Mr.  Roosevelt.  This  table  was 
on  my  right.  We  had  reached  the  fish  course, 
I  think,  when  a  liveried  footman  came  to  my 
left  side,  as  was  proper,  and  began  to  speak  to 
me  in  Norwegian.  Of  course  I  did  not  under 
stand  a  single  word,  but  I  saw  that  the  man 
was  labouring  under  some  excitement.  I  wondered 
whether  he  could  be  warning  me  not  to  put  any 
gold  spoons  into  my  pocket!  I  swung  around — 
the  better  to  hear  him — with  my  back  almost 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          245 

toward  the  royal  table,  when  a  gentleman  down 
the  table  a  little — my  immediate  companions  not 
being  able  to  speak  English — leaned  forward  and 
said :  "  He  is  trying  to  tell  you  that  the  King  wishes 
to  drink  a  glass  of  wine  with  you/'  I  thereupon 
hastily  turned  around  toward  the  royal  table  and 
saw  the  King  smiling,  with  his  wine  glass  charged, 
prepared  to  go  through  the  Scandinavian  ceremony 
of  drinking  a  health.  Fortunately  I  had  been  in 
Scandinavia  before  and  I  knew  what  this  ceremony 
was,  but  I  did  not  know  whether  I  ought  to  follow 
my  instinct  and  rise  from  my  seat.  Such  a  procedure, 
I  felt,  would  make  me  a  marked  man,  and  whatever 
I  may  be  at  home  I  certainly  was  shy  on  this  oc 
casion.  I  wondered  whether  one  with  so  low  a 
rank  as  that  of  Secretary  was  entitled  to  rise.  Of 
course,  all  this  flashed  through  my  mind  far  more 
quickly  than  I  can  describe  it,  and  I  determined 
to  rise  only  half  way,  so  that  I  should  be  only  half 
wrong,  in  any  event.  This  with  bended  and 
quaking  knees  I  did,  and  proceeded  to  bow  and 
smile  and  say  "Skol".  When  the  ceremony  was 
finished  I  fell  back  in  my  chair  with  embarrassment 
and  did  not  eat  much  for  a  course  or  two. 

Presently  I  saw  another  footman  approach  a 
gentleman  in  civilian  dress,  but  with  a  brilliant 
order  on  his  shirt  front,  at  the  opposite  long  table. 


246    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

This  gentleman  rose,  and  it  was  apparent  that  he 
wished  he  had  been  eight  feet  high.  He  clicked 
his  heels  together  and  with  perfect  precision  went 
through  the  health-drinking  ritual.  I  realized  my 
mistake.  I  should  have  stood  erect  like  the  Minister 
Plenipotentiary — which  it  now  seems  I  really  was, 
by  the  grace  of  Dr.  Egan ! 

After  dinner  the  company  adjourned  to  one  of 
the  fine  and  spacious  reception  rooms  where  we 
were,  or  some  of  us  were,  presented  to  the  King. 
As  I  had  been  standing  almost  shoulder  to  shoulder 
to  him  that  afternoon,  and  am  about  six  feet  in 
height  myself,  I  determined  to  apologize  for  my 
awkwardness  at  dinner,  so  I  said:  "Your  Majesty, 
I  appreciate  the  honour  which  you  did  me  by 
drinking  a  glass  of  wine  with  me  at  dinner,  and 
if  you  saw  a  rather  short  man  rise  when  you  ex 
pected  to  see  a  rather  tall  man  I  must  explain  that 
I  have  not  been  long  enough  in  your  hospitable 
country  to  know  whether  any  one  under  the  rank 
of  an  admiral  or  a  general  is  entitled  to  rise  on  such 
an  occasion;  so,  in  my  embarrassment  of  modesty, 
I  rose  only  half  way,  and  must  have  looked  about 
as  much  out  of  place  as  a  bent  pin."  Possibly 
the  American  frankness  of  it  all  amused  the  King. 
At  all  events,  he  laughed  cordially  and  once  or  twice 
in  later  correspondence  with  Mr.  Roosevelt  sent 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR  247 

some  kind  of  a  friendly  message  to  "the  bent 
pin"! 

Perhaps  the  most  notable  incident  of  this  Euro 
pean  tour,  at  any  rate  in  the  light  of  subsequent 
history,  was  Roosevelt's  meeting  with  the  Kaiser 
in  Berlin.  His  visit  to  the  Prussian  capital  had 
been  arranged  before  he  left  America,  and  was 
made  for  the  purpose  of  delivering  a  lecture  at 
the  University  of  Berlin.  This  lecture  did  not 
particularly  interest  me.  It  was  entitled:  "The 
World  Movement/'  I  can't  help  feeling  that 
Roosevelt  subconsciously  strove  to  impress  the 
university  pedants  of  Germany  that  an  American 
democrat  could  be  as  scholarly  and  academic  as 
they  were  and  could  deal  in  abstract  ideas  as 
ponderously  as  they  could.  The  address — in  my 
judgment — does  not  compare  in  style,  in  content, 
or  in  effectiveness  with  his  speeches  at  the  Sorbonne 
and  the  Guildhall  or  with  the  extemporaneous 
address  to  the  undergraduates  of  Cambridge.  Nor 
was  the  ceremony  itself  as  human  and  interesting 
as  that  at  the  Sorbonne,  although  it  was  much  more 
elaborate  and  formal.  It  is  true  that  a  chorus 
of  students — dressed  in  the  rather  theatrical  and 
bizarre  costumes  of  their  various  "corps" — sang, 
as  only  Germans  can  sing,  finely  harmonized  ar 
rangements  of  "Hail  Columbia"  and  "The  Star- 


248    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Spangled  Banner."  But  the  professors  in  their 
academic  gowns  struck  me  as  rather  stodgy.  The 
Kaiser,  dressed  in  what  I  supposed  to  be  a  Hussar's 
uniform,  was  in  the  audience;  and,  much  as  I 
despise  his  course  in  the  European  war,  I  must 
admit  that  he  had  a  very  marked  attractiveness 
of  personality  and  manner. 

On  the  day  of  his  arrival  in  Berlin  Roosevelt 
lunched  with  the  Emperor  at  the  palace  in  Potsdam 
and  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  one  of  the  party. 
We  went  out  from  Berlin  by  special  train  and  with 
a  brilliant  company  of  army  and  .navy  officers  and 
government  officials.  Chancellor  von  Bethmann- 
Hollweg  was  of  the  party.  Everything  had  been 
done  by  the  Kaiser  to  make  it  evident  that  he 
wished  to  treat  Roosevelt  with  special  honour. 
For  example,  the  day  following  the  luncheon,  the 
Kaiser  invited  Mr.  Roosevelt  to  review  with  him 
some  remarkable  field  manoeuvres  of  the  German 
troops  and  they  spent  in  this  operation  five  hours 
together  on  horseback. 

Ex-Ambassador  Henry  White,  who  was  the 
only  civilian  present  except  Kermit  Roosevelt, 
described  the  scene  to  me  that  evening.  The 
Emperor  was  dressed  in  the  uniform  of  a  general 
of  his  army,  Mr.  Roosevelt  in  a  simple  riding  suit 
of  khaki  and  a  black  slouch  hat.  As  they  sat  side 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          249 

by  side  in  the  saddle,  responding  together  to  the 
salutes  of  the  officers  and  troops  who  passed  by  in 
review,  the  scene  must  have  been  of  dramatic  in 
terest — the  only  difference  in  their  station  being 
indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  Emperor  was  dressed 
in  uniform  while  Mr.  Roosevelt  wore  the  dress  in 
which  he  would  ride  across  country  at  home,  and 
by  the  manner  of  their  salutes,  the  Emperor  as 
commander-in-chief  touching  his  visor,  Mr.  Roose 
velt  as  private  citizen  raising  his  hat.  During  the 
review  the  Emperor,  with  his  body-guard  of  officers 
in  brilliant  uniform  gathered  about  him,  raised  his 
helmet  and,  turning  to  Roosevelt,  said  in  German: 
"  Roosevelt,  mein  Freund,  I  wish  to  welcome  you  in 
the  presence  of  my  guards;  I  ask  you  to  remember 
that  you  are  the  only  private  citizen  who  ever 
reviewed  the  troops  of  Germany/'  Those  who  are 
familiar  with  the  strict  military  procedure  of  the 
German  Empire  under  Kaiser  Wilhelm  II  and  who 
understand  the  intimacy  of  the  German  expression 
"mein  Freund,"  can  understand  the  real  intention 
of  the  Kaiser  to  impress  his  officers  and  the  country 
with  his  desire  to  confer  what  he  believed  was  a 
mark  of  distinction  upon  Roosevelt. 

Roosevelt  appreciated  these  courtesies  but  I 
think  he  rather  felt  the  element  of  medievalism 
and  artificiality  in  them.  At  all  events,  they  did 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

not  turn  his  head  as  similar  flatteries  turned  the 
heads  of  some  American  exchange  professors  to 
Germany  during  the  European  war,  for  at  the 
very  outset  he  denounced  the  invasion  of  Belgium. 
In  its  issue  of  September  23,  1914,  the  Outlook 
published  an  article  by  him,  which  had  been  written 
at  least  ten  days  previously,  in  which  he  said : 

When  once  Belgium  was  invaded,  every  circumstance  of 
national  honour  and  interest  forced  England  to  act  precisely 
as  she  did  act.  She  could  not  have  held  up  her  head  among 
nations  had  she  acted  otherwise.  In  particular,  she  is  en 
titled  to  the  praise  of  all  true  lovers  of  peace,  for  it  is  only  by 
action  such  as  she  took  that  neutrality  treaties  and  treaties 
guaranteeing  the  rights  of  small  Powers  will  ever  be  given  any 
value.  .  .  .  What  action  our  Government  can  or  will 
take,  I  know  not.  It  has  been  announced  that  no  action  can 
be  taken  that  will  interfere  with  our  entire  neutrality.  .  .  . 
Neutrality  may  be  of  prime  necessity  in  order  to  preserve  our 
own  interests  and  maintain  peace  in  so  much  of  the  world  as 
is  not  affected  by  the  war.  .  .  But  it  is  a  grim  comment 
on  the  professional  pacifist  theories  as  hitherto  developed 
that  our  duty  to  preserve  peace  for  ourselves  may  necessarily 
mean  the  abandonment  of  all  effective  effort  to  secure  peace 
for  other  unoffending  nations  which  through  no  fault  of  their 
own  are  dragged  into  the  war. 

When  this  article  was  being  written  I  was  en 
deavouring,  although  not  a  Wilson  man,  to  give 
support  to  the  President  as  the  representative 
of  the  whole  country  in  a  time  of  crisis.  At  my 
request  Roosevelt  put  into  the  article  some  caveats 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          251 

as  to  Mr.  Wilson's  policy  of  neutrality  in  the 
hope  that  Wilson  might  slowly  come  to  see  the 
need  of  defending  Belgium.  These  caveats,  taken 
from  their  context,  some  of  his  unscrupulous 
political  antagonists  tried  to  employ  later  to  show 
that  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  he  did  not  feel 
about  the  rape  of  Belgium  as  he  did  later  in  the 
struggle.  For  this  error  of  judgment,  which  was 
due  to  my  desire  to  be  loyal  to  the  Government 
as  well  as  non-partisan,  I  am  afraid  Roosevelt 
never  forgave  me,  although  he  never  alluded  to  it 
in  criticism  or  blame.  From  the  very  beginning 
his  own  sentiments  expressed  in  private  conversa 
tion  were  those  uttered  in  the  following  telegram, 
sent  on  December  28,  1916,  to  Mr.  W.  J.  Hand, 
a  lawyer  and  citizen  of  Scranton,  Pennsylvania, 
who  was  chairman  of  a  Belgian  Protest  Meeting 
held  in  the  town  hall  of  that  city: 

I  wish  all  success  to  your  meeting.  Every  American 
worthy  of  the  name  should  join  in  indignant  and  emphatic 
protest  against  the  hideous  wrong-doing  committed  by  Ger 
many  in  Belgium.  Righteousness  comes  before  peace,  and 
neutrality  between  right  and  wrong  is  as  immoral  now  as  in 
the  days  of  Pontius  Pilate. 

This  whole  episode  I  have  described  fully  in  an 
article  which  was  published  in  the  Outlook  of 
March  29,  1916.  My  interpretation  was  con- 


252    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

firmed  by  an  editorial  in  the  Kansas  City  Star  of 
March  3ist: 

The  Star  can  add  confirmatory  evidence.  Colonel  Roose 
velt  spoke  in  Kansas  City,  Kansas,  on  September  21,  1914. 
To  at  least  one  member  of  the  Star  staff  at  that  time 
he  expressed  forcibly  his  views  regarding  the  duty  of  the 
United  States  toward  Belgium,  and  added  that  he  did  not 
know  how  much  longer  he  was  going  to  be  able  to  keep  from 
speaking  out  on  this  subject.  A  few  weeks  later  he  made  his 
first  public  declaration  in  criticism  of  the  Administration's 
attitude. 

But  to  go  back  for  a  moment  to  the  luncheon 
at  Potsdam.  It  was  perfectly  appointed  and 
managed  and  the  etiquette  of  precedence  was 
scrupulously  observed.  It  was  served  at  small 
round  tables  in  one  of  the  state  dining  rooms  to  a 
company  of,  I  should  say,  fifty  or  sixty  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  including  Mrs.  Roosevelt,  the  Empress, 
and  ladies  of  the  Court.  On  leaving  the  table 
we  adjourned  to  a  great  reception  room  know^n  as 
the  Muschelsaal,  so  called  because  the  artist  who 
built  it  in  Frederick  the  Great's  time  stuck  the 
yet-soft  plaster  full  of  iridescent  mussel  shells  with 
the  typically  Prussian  notion  of  aesthetics  that 
this  would  form  a  decoration '  of  beauty.  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  add  that  it  does  not.  Colonel 
Roosevelt  and  the  Kaiser  withdrew  to  one  corner 
of  the  great  Mussel  Salon  and  entered  into  a  lively 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR  253 

conversation.  The  rest  of  the  party  remained  at 
the  other  end  of  the  room  chatting  as  a  group  of 
guests  would  do  anywhere  at  a  special  luncheon. 

After  some  time  had  elapsed  I  noticed  the  mili 
tary  commander  in  charge  of  the  affair — I  think 
it  was  General  von  Plessin — go  up  and  whisper 
to  Chancellor  von  Bethmann-Hollweg.  The  two 
pulled  out  their  watches  and  then  consulted  Baron 
Schon,  the  Minister  of  the  Interior.  The  three 
next  went  to  the  Empress  and  talked  with  her  in 
low  voices.  Their  agitation  was  so  marked  and 
so  out  of  keeping  with  what  had  been  the  precision 
thus  far  observed  that  I  turned  to  a  young  captain 
of  infantry  whose  acquaintance  I  had  made  coming 
out  on  the  train  and  who  spoke  English  perfectly 
and  knew  my  official  relation  to  Roosevelt,  and 
said:  "May  I  ask  if  anything  has  gone  wrong ?" 
He  replied:  "Yes,  the  special  train  returns  to 
Berlin  at  four  o'clock.  It  is  now  twenty  minutes 
to  four  and  we  are  afraid  that  we  shall  not  reach 
the  station  in  time."  Of  course  in  those  days  if  a 
German  railway  train,  especially  a  royal  railway 
train,  was  delayed  the  entire  operation  of  the  em 
pire  was  apt,  temporarily  at  least,  to  go  to  pieces. 
But  the  exacting  and  all-powerful  domination  of 
the  Kaiser  was  such,  and  the  officers  of  his  Court 
had  been  so  trained  from  their  earliest  youth, 


254      IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

that  there  was  not  one  person  in  that  room — not 
even  the  Prime  Minister  of  the  Empire,  not  even 
the  Empress  herself — who  dared  step  across  the 
floor  and  remind  the  Kaiser  of  an  important  en 
gagement.  No  one  could  leave  the  room  until  he 
gave  the  signal. 

By  and  by  he  came  out  of  the  hypnotic  influence 
which  seemed  to  be  exercised  by  the  "Colonel  of 
the  Rough  Riders"  (as  the  Kaiser  liked  to  call  him) 
and  gave  the  necessary  intimation  that  we  were  to 
go.  We  were  rushed  to  the  station,  piling  into 
the  vehicles  with  very  little  attention  to  the  pre 
cedence  which  had  been  scrupulously  observed 
when  we  came  from  Berlin  in  the  morning,  and 
barely  got  our  train.  This  incident  seemed  amus 
ing  to  me  at  the  time,  but  I  now  think  that  it  was 
much  more  than  amusing,  that  it  had  an  important 
significance.  It  was  a  symptom  of  that  kind  of 
idolatory  which  led  the  German  people  to  follow  the 
Kaiser  and  his  Potsdam  circle  into  the  greatest 
national  disaster  of  history. 

But  the  Kaiser  and  his  Court  ought  not  to  form 
the  final  recollection  of  the  continent  of  Europe 
which  this  journey  affords.  And  it  shall  not. 

I  return  to  Brussels  for  a  moment  to  pay  a  tribute 
of  respect  and  admiration  to  King  Albert  and 
Queen  Elizabeth  of  Belgium.  They  entertained 


©Daily  Mirror,  London 

Colonel  Roosevelt  and  his  party  arriving  in  England  from 
Germany  where  they  had  been  entertained  by  the  Kaiser. 
This  was  in  1910 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR  255 

Mr.  Roosevelt  and  his  party  at  a  delightful 
dinner  at  the  Palace  of  Laeken,  which  lies  in 
a  beautiful  park  in  the  suburbs  of  the  capital. 
Their  genuineness,  simplicity,  and  cordiality  were 
of  a  kind  which  has  been  proved  to  be  characteristic 
of  the  three  personages  who,  in  the  history  of  the 
European  war,  will  stand  out  supremely,  I  think, 
for  nobility  of  character  and  heroism  of  action. 
The  third  is  the  Belgian  Cardinal,  Mercier. 

Queen  Elizabeth  is  of  a  German  royal  family  but 
she  threw  in  her  lot  with  her  husband  and  adopted 
his  people  in  a  way  that  entitles  her  to  an  honour 
far  higher  than  can  be  conferred  by  any  coronet 
or  hereditary  rank.  She  is  not  only  a  woman  of 
noble  character  but  of  high  intelligence.  She  had 
studied  medicine  and  I  was  told  practised  philan- 
thropically  not  a  little  among  the  poor  of  Brussels 
by  whom  she  was  fairly  idolized. 

During  the  evening^  after  dinner,  learning  that  I 
was  Secretary  to  Mr.  Roosevelt,  she  sought  me 
out  and  engaged  me  for  some  time  in  a  conversa 
tion  about  his  personality  and  career.  She  was 
much  interested  in  the  political  situation  in  the 
United  States  at  the  time,  and  I  explained  to  her 
as  well  as  I  could  some  of  the  policies  and  move 
ments  which  Roosevelt  had  espoused  and  led,  and 
which  on  the  one  hand  drew  about  him  as  great 


256    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

a  company  of  devoted  admirers,  and  on  the  other 
hand  ranged  against  him  as  strong  and  vigorous 
an  opposition,  as  the  political  history  of  the  United 
States  had  ever  displayed.  Her  grasp  and  under 
standing  of  such  questions  seemed  to  me  to  be 
quite  extraordinary  in  a  foreigner.  But  King  Albert 
had  visited  the  United  States  some  years  before 
in  quite  an  informal  way  and  made  a  study  of 
our  institutions.  Both  the  King  and  the  Queen, 
democratic  and  human  by  nature,  looked  with 
especial  interest  upon  the  development  of  demo 
cratic  institutions  in  America. 

From  Berlin  Roosevelt  went  to  England.  Many 
of  his  experiences  there  have  been  set  forth  in  other 
chapters.  The  chief  object  of  his  visit  when  he 
left  America  was  to  give  the  Romanes  lecture  at 
Oxford  and  to  receive  from  that  celebrated  univer 
sity  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Civil  Law. 
Regarding  this  occasion  I  may  quote  from  an 
introduction  which  I  contributed  to  the  volume 
of  his  "African  and  European  Addresses": 

The  Romanes  lecture  at  Oxford  University  was  the  last 
of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  transatlantic  speeches.  I  can  think  of  no 
greater  intellectual  honour  that  an  English-speaking  man  can 
receive  than  to  have  conferred  upon  him  by  the  queen  of 
all  universities  the  highest  honorary  degree  in  her  power 
to  give,  and  in  addition,  to  be  invited  to  address  the  digni 
taries  and  dons  and  doctors  of  that  university  as  a  scholar 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          257 

speaking  to  scholars.  There  is  no  American  university  man 
who  may  not  feel  entirely  satisfied  with  the  way  in  which 
the  American  university  graduate  stood  the  Oxford  test  on 
that  occasion.  He  took  in  good  part  the  jokes  and  pleas 
antries  pronounced  in  Latin  by  the  Chancellor,  Lord  Curzon; 
but  after  the  ceremonies  of  initiation  were  finished,  after  the 
beadles  had,  in  response  to  the  order  of  the  Chancellor,  con 
ducted  "Doctorem  Honor  abilem  ad  Pulpitum,"  and  after  the 
Chancellor  had — this  time  in  very  direct  and  beautiful  Eng 
lish — welcomed  him  to  membership  in  the  University,  Mr. 
Roosevelt  delivered  an  address  the  serious  scholarship  of 
which  held  the  interest  of  those  who  heard  it  and  arrested 
the  attention  of  many  thousands  of  others  who  received 
the  lecture  through  the  printed  page. 

As  I  have  been  writing  these  words  I  have  also 
been  looking  over  again  this  Oxford-Romanes 
lecture.  I  find  in  it  a  passage  which  strikes  me 
with  new  force.  It  confirms,  I  think,  the  inter 
pretation  of  his  internationalism  which  will  be 
found  at  the  conclusion  of  the  chapter  on  States 
manship  : 

The  foreign  policy  of  a  great  and  self-respecting  country 
should  be  conducted  on  exactly  the  same  plane  of  honour, 
of  insistence  upon  one's  own  rights,  and  of  respect  for  the 
rights  of  others,  that  marks  the  conduct  of  a  brave  and  hon 
ourable  man  when  dealing  with  his  fellows.  Permit  me  to 
support  this  statement  out  of  my  own  experience.  For  nearly 
eight  years  I  was  the  head  of  a  great  nation,  and  charged  es 
pecially  with  the  conduct  of  its  foreign  policy;  and  during  those 
years  I  took  no  action  with  reference  to  any  other  people  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  that  I  would  not  have  felt  justified  in 
taking  as  an  individual  in  dealing  with  other  individuals. 


258    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

If  I  were  to  try  to  put  in  a  single  phrase  the 
impression  which  Roosevelt  made  upon  Europe  I 
should  say  it  was  that  of  personal  magnetism. 

This  magnetic  quality  of  Roosevelt's,  which 
acted  as  a  kind  of  electrical  stimulant  upon  those 
who  came  in  contact  with  him,  was  remarked  upon 
in  a  striking  way  by  the  physician  who  attended 
him  in  London.  Unceasing  private  conversations 
and  innumerable  public  and  semi-public  speeches 
during  his  journey  tore  his  voice  literally  to  pieces. 
In  Berlin  he  was  under  the  care  of  a  throat  specialist 
and  for  a  day  or  two  it  was  a  question  whether  he 
himself  would  be  able  to  read  his  address  at  the  Uni 
versity  of  Berlin.  In  London,  while  he  was  staying 
at  the  house  of  his  friend  Sir  Arthur  Lee,  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  throat  surgeons  in  Great  Britain 
gave  him  daily  treatments  to  remove  the  hoarse 
ness  which  had  attacked  his  overstrained  vocal 
chords.  When  this  surgeon  was  leaving  the  house 
after  his  last  professonal  visit,  just  before  our  de 
parture  for  America,  it  was  my  duty  to  pay  his  fee, 
and,  having  performed  this  formality,  I  walked 
out  with  him  to  his  waiting  automobile  brougham. 
He  kept  me  standing  on  the  sidewalk  for  some 
moments  while  he  talked  about  Roosevelt,  ex 
pressing  his  admiration  for  him  and  his  astonish 
ment  at  his  extraordinary  personality.  "In  all 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          259 

my  experience/'  he  said,  "I  have  never  known 
anything  like  that  man's  vigour.  Usually  when 
I  treat  a  patient  as  I  have  been  treating  Colonel 
Roosevelt  I  feel  that  some  of  my  vital  force  has 
gone  out  of  me  into  the  patient  and  I  come  away 
slightly  relaxed  or  exhausted.  I  suppose  all 
physicians  have  the  same  feeling,  in  similar  circum 
stances.  But  I  have  been  treating  Colonel  Roose 
velt  now  for  several  days;  and  each  time,  instead  of 
coming  away  relaxed,  I  have  come  away  invigour- 
ated,  as  though  some  kind  of  vital  energy  had  passed 
from  him  into  me  instead  of  from  me  into  him! 

Readers  of  this  volume  will  have  surmised  al 
ready  that  this  vital  energy  of  Roosevelt's — which 
not  only  enabled  him  to  do  an  unprecedented 
amount  of  work  but  also  inspired  and  toned  up  all 
his  associates  to  efforts  and  desires  that  surprised 
them  when  they  stopped  to  think  about  it — was 
the  characteristic  for  which  he  will  be  longest 
remembered  by  his  contemporaries.  It  is,  how 
ever,  a  force  of  character  very  difficult  to  describe, 
in  language  which  does  not  seem  extravagant,  to 
those  who  did  not  know  him  and  did  not  come 
within  range  of  his  electric  vitality. 

There  were  all  sorts  of  echoes  in  America  of  this 
Old  World  tour.  One  of  the  most  interesting,  to 
me,  is  that  contained  in  a  letter  which  I  received  in 


26o    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

1916  from  Madame  Le  Braz,  the  American  wife 
of  Professor  Anatole  Le  Braz  of  the  University 
of  Rennes  in  France.  Madame  Le  Braz,  who  died 
not  long  after  Mr.  Roosevelt,  was  a  Kentuckian 
of  great  cultivation  and  charm.  She  knew  of  and 
shared  my  admiration  for  Roosevelt,  and  her  letter, 
while  only  a  part  of  it  deals  with  his  African 
expedition,  will  perhaps  make  a  not  inappropriate 
conclusion  to  this  chapter.  She  wrote : 

It  was  in  August  of  1912.  I  was  travelling  with  a  dear 
friend,  a  schoolmate  of  my  younger  sister,  from  Paris  to 
Montreux.  When  the  train  stopped  at  Lausanne,  a  man  sit 
ting  opposite  us  in  the  railway  carriage  descended,  taking  oc 
casion  for  exercise  to  walk  up  and  down  the  platform  during 
the  fifteen  minutes'  wait  at  the  station.  During  his  absence 
I  took  the  liberty  of  looking  at  an  American  magazine  con 
taining  an  article  on  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  the  political  situa 
tion  in  America,  which  he  had  been  reading.  In  European 
papers  the  space  devoted  to  news  of  happenings  and  politics 
in  America  was  so  brief  that  I  was  hungry  for  fuller  accounts 
of  the  intensely  interesting  turn  of  events  over  there  in  the 
New  World — at  once  the  melting  pot  and  practical  labora 
tory  for  the  nations  and  ideas  of  Europe. 

Mr.  Roosevelt — representing  in  himself,  in  a  singular  and 
striking  way,  the  union  of  radical  and  conservative  ideas  and 
of  conservative  and  radical  action — had  already  come  to 
represent  (for  me)  the  most  truly  American  of  all  America's 
distinctive  spirit  and  genius.  With  a  knowledge  of  the 
past,  and  a  grasp  and  vision  of  the  future,  and  a  consequent 
characteristic  fearlessness  of  speech  and  action,  he  so  mysti 
fies  the  slow-thinking  heavy  brains,  that  they  call  him  in 
consistent — just  because  they  cannot  keep  pace  with  the 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          261 

brilliant,  versatile  mind  which  bares  like  a  searchlight  the 
truth  of  things.  Never  losing  sight  of  the  general  view 
and  meaning  as  a  whole,  he  nevertheless  has  the  faculty  of 
attention  to  the  details  of  events  as  they  pass,  which  enables 
him  to  judge  justly  and  generously  of  both  people  and  things, 
while  he  turns  from  one  to  another — passing  judgment  in  a 
way  that  at  times  seems  harsh  to  those  whose  very  fear  of 
inconsistency  acts  as  fear  always  acts — arresting  powers, 
whether  of  body  or  mind,  of  digestion  or  clear  thinking. 
Another  reason  that  he  is  capable  of  dealing  with  all,  is  be 
cause  he  cares  to  look  all  squarely  in  the  face.  His  life  both 
private  and  public  is  an  open  book,  he  is  "gentleman  un 
afraid."  There  certainly  are  many  who,  for  personal  or 
political  reasons,  or  both,  detest  this  great  man.  My  friend 
was  one  of  these;  her  mother  had  been  a  warm  friend  of  "dear 
Maria";  she  heartily  disapproved,  and  could  not  see  or 
acknowledge  any  good  in  Mr.  Roosevelt.  We  agreed  so  en 
tirely  on  many,  indeed  most,  subjects  and  views  of  life,  that 
when  we  wanted  to  enjoy  the  spice  of  a  real  argument,  with 
our  views  wholly  and  diametrically  opposed,  we  opened  the 
subject  of  this  great  American. 

Thus  had  we  just  been  arguing  when  the  owner  of  the 
magazine  returned  to  his  place  in  the  carriage,  and  the  train 
moved  out  of  the  station.  He  politely  begged  me  to  keep 
the  article,  if  I  was  interested,  and  we  began  to  speak  of 
America.  His  speech  was  very  English  in  intonation  and 
when  I  asked  if  he  was  American  he  said  "Yes" — but  ex 
plained  that  he  had  been  educated  partly  in  England. 

In  course  of  conversation  I  mentioned  the  fact  that  my 
friend  and  I  did  not  agree  in  any  particular  on  the  subject  of 
Mr.  Roosevelt.  I  added:  "She  denounces  him  as  unfair,  un 
truthful,  unjust,  and  so  on;  she  makes  statements  sometimes 
which  I  cannot  refute  with  facts,  though  I  feel  sure  they  might 
be  refuted.  For  instance,  she  declares  that  Mr.  Roosevelt 
was  not  at  San  Juan  Hill,  but  several  miles  distant." 

To  this  our  fellow  passenger  replied  promptly:   "Well, 


262    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

he  was  very  much  there;  I  wasn't  thirty  feet  away  from  him, 
and  I  tell  you  he  put  courage  into  the  hearts  of  us  all.  I  can 
truthfully  say  that  his  spirit  and  fearlessness  inspired  every 
mother's  son.  I  don't  approve  of  all  he  has  done  lately. 
I'm  sorry  he  has  broken  with  his  party  and  taken  the  stand 
he  has,  but  it  is  because  I  admire  him  so  much  that 
I  regret  his  present  attitude.  He  is  a  wonderful  man; 
his  ability  to  see  and  act  quickly  and  calmly  in  the  midst 
of  confusion  and  excitement  is  amazing  and  was  well  proved. 
For  instance,  in  the  charge,  when  Hamilton  Fish  fell,  Roose 
velt  took  time  to  say  to  some  of  those  near  at  hand:  'If 
there's  a  spark  of  life  in  Fish  for  God's  sake  get  him  to  a  hos 
pital!'" 

Our  fellow  passenger's  actual  name  we  did  not  learn.  We 
left  the  train  at  Montreux,  but  he  had  told  us  that  he  was 
nephew  or  grandson  of  General  Beauregard,  and  he  had  been 
one  of  the  Rough  Riders  under  Theodore  Roosevelt.  This 
incident  answered  very  directly  my  friend's  accusation  as  to 
the  question  of  San  Juan  Hill.  Later  my  arguments  in  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  favour  were  to  find  further  confirmation  quite 
as  unexpected  and  even  more  far-reaching. 

We  had  taken  passage  for  our  return  to  America  on  the 
same  ship  that  had  carried  us  to  England.  On  the  list  of 
passengers  I  noticed  the  name  of  Sir  Percy  Girouard.  His 
brother  had  married  a  distant  cousin  of  mine,  and  I  was  in 
terested  to  meet  this  Canadian  who  had  been  Governor  suc 
cessively  of  two  colonies  of  South  Africa  during  an  absence 
of  thirteen  years  from  Canada.  The  first  day  my  friend 
and  I  amused  ourselves  guessing  which  might  be  Sir  Percy. 
Our  decision  finally  rested  between  two  of  the  passengers; 
one  of  these  wore  a  monocle — with  perfect  right  and  pro 
priety,  I  may  add,  for  he  had  only  the  sight  of  one  eye,  as 
he  himself  admitted  to  us  later.  This  was  Sir  Percy.  He 
was  very  agreeable  and  entertaining.  We  spoke  of  things  for 
eign  and  American  and  naturally  of  Mr.  Roosevelt. 

I  explained  that  my  friend  Mis§  X and  I  did  not  at 


AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TOUR          263 

all  agree  as  to  Mr.  Roosevelt,  and  then  I  could  not  help 
recounting  the  experience  in  the  railway  carriage  on  the  way 
to  Montreux.  Whereat  Sir  Percy,  growing  more  and  more 
enthusiastic,  continued  the  Rough  Rider's  eulogy  of  our  great 
American  by  telling  of  his  own  experience.  He  said  that, 
when  Governor  of  the  Protectorate  of  East  Africa,  it  was  his 
privilege  to  have  Colonel  Roosevelt  as  his  guest  (for  three 
weeks  I  think  he  said  but  I  am  not  sure  that  I  recall  just  the 
time  he  stated).  Both  he  and  his  wife,  he  told  us,  felt  something 
of  consternation  at  the  prospect  of  a  visit  from  this  strenu 
ous  American,  accounts  of  whose  amazing  energy  in  every 
line  had  given  the  impression  that  they  would  find  it  hard 
indeed  to  entertain  him — endlessly  fatiguing  to  say  the  least. 
"Well,"  said  Sir  Percy,  "we  were  never  more  delightfully 
surprised,  for  a  more  charming  guest  in  every  way  it  would 
be  impossible  to  imagine.  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  a  constant 
wonder  and  delight  to  us  all.  I  was  amazed  at  the  brilliancy, 
the  versatility,  the  grasp  and  scope  of  his  mind.  Among  the 
other  guests  were  several  men  of  note  in  their  line,  and  when 
he  spoke  with  a  certain  great  scientist  on  that  one's  preferred 
subject,  one  would  have  thought  he  had  studied  that  ques 
tion  by  preference  to  all  others.  When  he  spoke  with  an 
eminent  artist,  one  might  judge  that  art  had  occupied  his 
attention  more  especially  than  other  things.  He  seemed 
strangely  at  home — if  I  may  say  so — on  all  subjects.  I  have 
never  met  any  one  who  gave  so  quickly  and  decidedly  this 
impression.  One  is  staggered  at  the  thought  of  all  he  must 
have  read  and  studied  and  retained;  and  this  with  the  very 
active  life  at  all  times  that  he  has  had — the  very  full  life  of  a 
great  public  man.  It  is  nothing  short  of  astounding. 
I  have  served  under  five  of  the  great  men  of  England,  of 
the  world — under  Kitchener,  Lord  Roberts,  Lord  Cromer. 
.  .  .  [I  have  forgotten  two  of  the  five  names  that  Sir 
Percy  mentioned];  I  knew  Cecil  Rhodes  very  well — I'll  just 
throw  him  in  for  good  measure;  and  I  say  to  you  your  Mr. 
Roosevelt  is  far  and  away  greater  than  them  all.'" 


CHAPTER  VIII 
PERSONAL  QUALITIES 

ONE  of  the  greatest  figures  in  the  history  of 
English  literature  is  that  of  a  man  whose 
writings  are  little  read  to-day,  except  by  academic 
students  who  are  compelled  to  dig  into  abandoned 
literary  dust  heaps.  Few  moderns  read  "The 
Vanity  of  Human  Wishes"  or  "Rasselas"  for 
pleasure,  but  no  English  writer  gives  greater 
pleasure  to  a  whole  army  of  readers  than  the  author 
of  these  nearly  obsolete  literary  productions — Dr. 
Samuel  Johnson.  His  writings  are  half  forgotten, 
but  he  himself  lives  and  moves  and  talks  with  us 
to-day  as  he  did  more  than  a  century  ago,  with  the 
group  of  cronies  and  friends  in  Grub  Street — a 
group  which  has  been  made  immortal  by  his  as 
sociation  with  it.  Dr.  Johnson  was  what  we  call 
a  "character" — a  man  in  whom  the  ordinary 
human  qualities  were  developed  and  manifested 
in  an  extraordinary  degree.  His  humour,  his 
epigrammatic  wit,  his  common-sense  philosophy, 
his  downright  honesty  and  sincerity,  his  satire 
of  all  that  was  mean  and  shabby,  his  admiration 

•264 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  265 

for  what  was  genuine  and  fine,  his  self-respect  and 
self-reliance  in  the  face  of  poverty  and  physical  ills, 
his  marvellous  vitality,  his  sure-footed  sympathy, 
which  enabled  him  to  find  the  real  and  detect  the 
sham  in  human  society,  regardless  of  the  distinction 
of  poverty  or  wealth  or  past  or  class,  have  drawn 
men  to  him  in  a  kind  of  affectionate  attachment 
possessed  by  no  other  English  writer.  What  Dr. 
Johnson  gave  to  the  world  was  not  literature  but 
personality. 

So  I  believe  that  Theodore  Roosevelt's  greatest 
contribution  to  his  country  and  his  time  was  per 
sonality — was  Theodore  Roosevelt  himself.  Un 
like  Dr.  Johnson,  he  made  great  and  permanent 
contributions  to  the  policies  and  the  social  life 
of  his  period.  He  showed  more  clearly  than  any 
other  American  statesman  that  international  peace 
rests  on  justice  and  morals  expressed  through 
physical  power;  by  his  action  in  Cuba  and  in  the 
Philippines  he  established  the  precedent  for  the 
colonial  policy  of  the  proposed  League  of  Nations, 
namely,  that  colonies  shall  be  administered  as  a 
trust  for  the  benefit  of  the  inhabitants;  the  Panama 
Canal  is  his  creation  as  much  as  if  he  had  digged 
it  with  his  own  hand. ,  But  it  is  as  a  living,  breath 
ing  human  person  that  he  will  be  longest  remem 
bered.  There  doubtless  have  been  greater  states- 


266    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

men,  greater  writers,  greater  explorers,  greater 
preachers,  greater  soldiers;  but  there  never  was 
a  greater  patriot,  nor  has  any  one  individual  man 
in  modern  times  touched  so  many  and  so  varied 
fields  of  activity  in  human  life  with  such  zest  and 
vitality,  or  with  such  practical  and  successful 
achievements  in  all  of  them.  Among  soldiers  he 
was  greeted  as  a  soldier;  among  statesmen,  as  a 
statesman;  among  pioneers  and  woodsmen,  as  a 
hunter  and  naturalist;  among  scientists,  as  a 
scholar  and  explorer;  among  men  of  letters,  as  a 
writer  and  historian;  among  preachers,  as  a  teacher 
of  morals;  among  kings,  as  a  man  of  royal  preroga 
tives;  among  plain  men  and  women,  as  a  fellow 
citizen  and  democrat;  and — last,  but  far  from 
least — among  children,  as  a  protector  and  sym 
pathetic  companion.  His  personality  was  a  unique 
and  unprecedented  combination  of  many  qualities, 
any  one  of  which,  carried  to  a  high  development, 
makes  what  we  call  a  great  man. 

Personality  is  an  illusive  and  mysterious  force, 
easy  to  perceive  and  feel  but  hard  to  define.  I 
know  of  no  better  a  definition  than  that  given  in 
one  of  his  books  on  Japan  by  Percival  Lowell,  the 
astronomer. J 

About  certain  people  there  exists  a  subtle  something  which 
leaves  its  impress  indelibly  upon  the  consciousness  of  all  who 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  267 

come  in  contact  with  them.  This  something  is  a  power,  but 
a  power  of  so  indefinable  description  that  we  beg  definition 
by  calling  it  simply  the  personality  of  the  man.  It  is  not  a 
matter  of  subsequent  reasoning,  but  of  direct  perception. 
We  feel  it.  Sometimes  it  charms  us;  sometimes  It  repels. 
But  we  can  no  more  be  oblivious  to  it  than  we  can  to  the  tem 
perature  of  the  air.  Its  possessor  has  but  to  enter  the  room 
and  insensibly  we  are  conscious  of  a  presence.  It  is  as  if  we 
had  suddenly  been  placed  in  the  field  of  a  magnetic  force. 


Roosevelt  had  this  magnetic  force  of  personality 
in  a  very  marked  degree.  It  surrounded  him  as  a 
kind  of  nimbus,  imperceptible  but  irresistibly 
drawing  to  him  everyone  who  came  into  his  pres 
ence — even  those  who  believed  they  were  antag 
onistic  or  inimical  to  him.  It  is  impossible  in 
a  sketch  of  this  character  to  make  a  complete 
analysis  of  Roosevelt's  magnetic  personality  or  to 
achieve  a  full  and  rounded  portrait  with  a  careful 
and  accurately  studied  perspective.  I  shall  content 
myself  with  speaking  of  the  four  of  his  qualities 
which  made  the  greatest  impression  upon  me. 
The  first  was  his  CAUTION, 

To  speak  of  caution  as  a  characteristic  of  Theo 
dore  Roosevelt  will  strike  many  readers  who  did 
not  know  him  intimately  as  being  amusing.  He 
was  popularly  supposed  to  be  rash,  impetuous, 
impulsive;  to  act  upon  the  spur  of  the  moment; 
to  follow  the  emotion  that  controlled  him  for  the 


268    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

time  being.  Nothing  could  be  further  from  the 
truth.  He  was  not  only  a  believer  in  preparedness 
in  national  life  but  in  individual  life  as  we'll.  Very 
early  in  his  career  he  found  that  he  was  hampered 
by  certain  physical  defects  and  he  set  to  work  with 
care  and  deliberation  to  make  himself  vigorous  and 
strong.  /  He  tells  the  story  in  his  autobiography: 

Having  been  a  sickly  boy,  with  no  natural  bodily  prowess, 
and  having  lived  much  at  home,  I  was  at  first  quite  unable 
to  hold  my  own  when  thrown  into  contact  with  other  boys  of 
rougher  antecedents.  I  was  nervous  and  timid.  Yet  from 
reading  of  the  people  I  admired — ranging  from  the  soldiers 
of  Valley  Forge  and  Morgan's  riflemen  to  the  heroes  of  my 
favourite  stories — and  from  hearing  of  the  feats  performed  by 
my  Southern  forefathers  and  kinsfolk,  and  from  knowing  my 
father,  I  felt  a  great  admiration  for  men  who  were  fearless 
and  who  could  hold  their  own  in  the  world,  and  I  had  a  great 
desire  to  be  like  them. 

Until  I  was  nearly  fourteen  I  let  this  desire  take  no  more 
definite  shape  than  day-dreams.  Then  an  incident  happened 
that  did  me  real  good.  Having  an  attack  of  asthma,  I 
was  sent  off  by  myself  to  Moosehead  Lake.  On  the  stage 
coach  ride  thither  I  encountered  a  couple  of  other  boys 
who  were  about  my  own  age,  but  very  much  more  competent, 
and  also  much  more  mischievous.  I  have  no  doubt  they 
were  good-hearted  boys,  but  they  were  boys.  They  found 
that  I  was  a  foreordained  and  predestined  victim,  and  in 
dustriously  proceeded  to  make  life  miserable  for  me.  The 
worst  feature  was  that  when  I  finally  tried  to  fight  them,  I 
discovered  that  either  one  singly  could  not  only  handle  me 
with  easy  contempt,  but  handle  me  so  as  not  to  hurt  me  much 
and  yet  to  prevent  my  doing  any  damage  whatever  in  return. 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  269 

The  experience  taught  me  what  probably  no  amount  of 
good  advice  could  have  taught  me.  I  made  up  my  mind 
that  I  must  try  to  learn  so  that  I  would  not  again  be  put  in 
such  a  helpless  position;  and  having  become  quickly  and  bit 
terly  conscious  that  I  did  not  have  the  natural  prowess  to 
hold  my  own,  I  decided  that  I  would  try  to  supply  its  place 
by  training.  Accordingly,  with  my  father's  hearty  ap 
proval,  I  started  to  learn  to  box.  I  was  a  painfully  slow 
and  awkward  pupil,  and  certainly  worked  two  or  three 
years  before  I  made  any  perceptible  improvement  what 
ever.  .  .  . 

There  were  all  kinds  of  things  of  which  I  was  afraid  at  first, 
ranging  from  grizzly  bears  to  "mean"  horses  and  gun-fighters; 
but  by  acting  as  if  I  was  not  afraid,  I  gradually  ceased  to  be 
afraid.  Most  men  can  have  the  same  experience  if  they 
choose.  They  will  first  learn  to  bear  themselves  well  in  trials 
which  they  anticipate,  and  which  they  school  themselves  in 
advance  to  meet.  After  a  while  the  habit  will  grow  on  them, 
and  they  will  behave  well  in  sudden  and  unexpected  emergen 
cies  which  come  upon  them  unawares. 

It  is,  of  course,  much  pleasanter  if  one  is  naturally  fearless, 
and  I  envy  and  respect  the  men  who  are  naturally  fearless. 
But  it  is  a  good  thing  to  remember  that  the  man  who  does 
not  enjoy  this  advantage  can  nevertheless  stand  beside  the 
man  who  does,  and  can  do  his  duty  with  the  like  efficiency, 
if  he  chooses  to.  Of  course,  he  must  not  let  his  desire  take 
the  form  merely  of  a  day-dream.  Let  him  dream  about 
being  a  fearless  man,  and  the  more  he  dreams,  the  better 
he  will  be,  always  provided  he  does  his  best  to  realize  the 
dream  in  practice.  He  can  do  his  part  honourably  and  well, 
provided  only  he  sets  fearlessness  before  himself  as  an  ideal, 
schools  himself  to  think  of  danger  merely  as  something  to  be 
faced  and  overcome,  and  regards  life  itself  as  he  should  regard 
it — not  as  something  to  be  thrown  away,  but  as  a  pawn  to  be 
promptly  hazarded  whenever  the  hazard  is  warranted  by  the 
larger  interests  of  the  great  game  in  which  we  are  all  engaged. 


270    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

As  a  result  of  this  precautionary  care  he  became 
a  man  of  great  athletic  powers,  not  only  a  skilful 
boxer,  an  accomplished  horseman,  and  a  first-rate 
shot,  but  an  explorer  who  endured  physical  priva 
tions  and  struggles  in  mountains,  wilderness,  and 
jungle,  that  would  have  broken  down  many  men 
endowed  in  the  beginning  with  naturally  stronger 
bodies.  In  my  editorial  association  with  him  I 
found  the  same  sense  of  precautionary  preparation. 
He  never  wrote  an  article  without  verifying  his 
statements  of  fact,  and  he  invariably  submitted  the 
articles,  when  done,  to  one  or  more  of  his  colleagues 
for  criticism  and  suggestion//  How  painstaking  he 
was  in  this  respect  is  illustrated  by  this  incident 
which  occurred  when  he  was  preparing  his  auto 
biography  and  of  which  I  am  reminded  by  hap 
pening  upon  the  correspondence  about  it,  while 
going  over  my  papers  and  letters  in  preparation 
for  this  chapter.  In  July,  1913,  Roosevelt  wrote 
me  from  Sagamore  Hill: 

Like  the  horse-leech's  daughter,  I  come  back!  In  either 
Chapter  10  or  Chapter  15  will  you  insert  in  an  appropriate 
place,  the  following: 

"The  American  public  rarely  appreciates  the  high  quality 
of  the  work  done  by  some  of  our  diplomats,  work,  usually 
entirely  unnoticed  and  unrewarded,  which  redounds  to  the 
interest  and  the  honour  of  all  of  us.  The  most  useful  man 
in  the  entire  diplomatic  service,  during  my  Presidency  and 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  271 

for  many  years  before,  was  Harry  White.  When  I  left  the 
Presidency  he  was  Ambassador  to  France;  he  was  removed 
shortly  afterward  by  Mr.  Taft,  for  reasons  unconnected  with 
the  good  of  the  service,  and  to  the  serious  detriment  of  the 


service." 


In  reply  I  wrote  suggesting  that  he  say  "one 
of  the  most  useful  men  .  .  .  was  Harry 
White";  and  that  he  omit  the  last  phrase:  "and 
to  the  serious  detriment  of  the  service/'  Referring 
to  these  suggested  changes  I  said:  "I  make  the 
first,  because  it  will  relieve  you  of  the  possibility 
of  some  stupid  persons  saying  that  it  proves  you 
did  not  find  Robert  Bacon  useful,  and  the  second, 
because  I  think  the  line  stricken  out  is  a  little  of 
an  anti-climax." 

Roosevelt,  in  the  meantime,  had  gone  on  one  of 
his  Western  trips  but  two  weeks  later  he  wrote,  dat 
ing  his  letter  "North  of  the  Grand  Canyon,  July  29, 


Now  for  the  Harry  White  matter.  I  wish  to  adopt  most 
of  your  suggestion;  but  to  keep  the  statement  that  he  was  the 
best  man  in  the  service  because  that  is  the  truth.  How 
would  it  do  to  have  it  read  as  follows?: 

"The  most  useful  man  in  the  entire  diplomatic  service, 
during  my  Presidency  and  for  many  years  before,  was  Harry 
White;  and  I  say  this  having  in  mind  the  high  quality  of 
work  done  by  such  admirable  ambassadors  and  ministers  as 
Bacon,  Meyer,  Straus,  O'Brien,  Rockhill,  and  Egan  to  name 
only  a  few  among  many.  When  I  left  the  Presidency,  White 


272    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

was  Ambassador  to  France;  shortly  afterward  he  was  re 
moved  by  Mr.  Taft,  for  reasons  unconnected  with  the  good 
of  the  service." 

And  that  is  the  way  the  passage  stands  in  the 
Autobiography  except  that  someone — I  do  not 
know  who — changed  "Harry"  White  to  "Henry" 
White;  perhaps  it  was  some  punctilious  lady  proof 
reader  who  felt  that  it  was  impolite  to  call  an  am 
bassador  in  public  by  so  debonair  a  name  as 
Harry! 

The  facts  which  I  have  already  related  regarding 
his  correspondence  with  Mr.  Bryan  while  he  was 
President,  his  preparation  of  his  Guildhall  speech, 
and  his  controversy  with  the  Vatican,  are  illustra 
tive  of  the  caution  and  care  with  which  he  pre 
pared  himself  for  any  important  public  act  or  ut 
terance.  His  occasional  appearance  of  impetu 
osity  has  often  seemed  to  me  to  be  analogous  to 
that  of  the  track  athlete  who  is  about  to  run  a 
hundred-yard  dash.  The  spectator  sees  a  half  a 
dozen  young  men  at  the  starting  line  waiting  for 
the  pistol  before  they  dart  for  their  goal.  They  are 
on  their  toes,  quivering  with  eagerness,  sometimes 
making  a  false  start  in  their  overwhelming  desire 
to  accomplish  their  task.  At  the  flash  of  the  pistol 
they  are  off,  like  lightning.  To  the  ordinary 
observer  there  is  no  more  striking  portrayal  of 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  273 

rash  impulsiveness  than  is  found  in  the  attitudes 
and  actions  of  these  swift  runners.  But  the  or 
dinary  observer  is  unaware  of  the  weeks,  perhaps 
the  months,  possibly  even  the  years,  of  arduous, 
exacting,  tedious,  accurate  training  that  the  athlete 
has  subjected  himself  to  before  he  may  even  ven 
ture  to  try  to  make  a  dash  in  less  than  eleven 
seconds. 

So  it  was  with  Roosevelt.  He  studied,  he  read, 
he  consulted,  he  thought,  he  deliberated,  he  put 
himself  in  the  hand  of  trainers  so  to  speak;  but 
when  the  time  for  action  came  he  was  on  his  toes, 
ready  to  jump  at  the  word  "  Go."  It  was  at  these 
times  that  the  general  public  saw  him,  not  during 
his  hours  of  training.  And  thus  it  was  that  he  got 
the  reputation,  quite  an  unjust  and  unfounded 
one,  of  being  impetuous.  It  is  not  an  insignificant 
thing  that  while  he  was  accused  of  proceeding 
rashly  along  unconstitutional  lines  as  a  political 
executive,  both  during  his  governorship  of  the  State 
of  New  York  and  his  Presidency  of  the  United 
States,  no  legislative  act  that  he  advocated  and 
signed  and  no  executive  act  that  he  performed 
without  legislative  cooperation  has  ever,  I  believe, 
been  declared  unconstitutional  by  any  court. 

The  second  quality  which  I  would  mention  as 
typically  characteristic  of  Roosevelt  was  his  COUR- 


274    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

AGE — not  only  his  moral  courage  but  his  pugnacious 
courage.  //Although  he  was  not  rash  he  apparently 
had  no  sense  of  fear  in  physical  danger.  And  his 
courage  was  tested,  for  his  life  was  placed  at  great 
risk  more  than  once.  In  his  book  describing  his 
explorations  in  South  America  he  tells  very  simply 
of  the  physical  perils  that  he  and  his  party  went 
through  in  the  canoe  voyage  down  "The  River  of 
Doubt" — so  simply,  in  fact,  that  the  very  great 
seriousness  of  the  peril  almost  fails  to  impress  the 
reader.  In  this  adventure  he  became  infected  with 
the  terrible  jungle  fever  of  South  America  which 
had  much  to  do,  I  have  always  believed,  with  the  ill 
ness  that  resulted  in  his  untimely  death.  He  nar 
rates  in  a  quite  matter-of-fact  way  that  the  infec 
tion  resulted  in  an  abscess  on  his  leg  in  which  the 
surgeon  had  to  place  a  drainage  tube  that  would 
have  kept  the  average  man  on  his  back  in  a  well- 
equipped  hospital.  But  he  went  on,  struggling 
and  stumbling  over  the  rocks  and  through  the 
matted  underbrush  of  the  jungle.//  I  quote  the 
story  in  his  own  words  from  his  volume  "Through 
the  Brazilian  Wilderness": 


The  men  were  growing  steadily  weaker  under  the  endless 
strain  of  exhausting  labour.  Kermit  was  having  an  attack 
of  fever  and  Lyra  and  Cherrie  had  touches  of  dysentery,  but 
all  three  continued  to  work.  While  in  the  water  trying  to 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  275 

help  with  an  upset  canoe  I  had  by  my  own  clumsiness  bruised 
my  leg  against  a  boulder;  and  the  resulting  infection  was 
somewhat  bothersome.  I  now  had  a  sharp  attack  of  fever, 
but  thanks  to  the  excellent  care  of  the  doctor  it  was  over  in 
about  forty-eight  hours;  but  Kermit 's  fever  grew  worse  and 
he  too  was  unable  to  work  for  a  day  or  two.  We  could  walk 
over  the  portages,  however.  .  .  . 

Our  men  were  discouraged,  weak,  and  sick;  most  of  them 
already  had  begun  to  have  fever.  Their  condition  was  in 
evitable  after  more  than  a  month's  uninterrupted  work  of 
the  hardest  kind  in  getting  through  the  long  series  of  rapids 
we  had  just  passed;  and  a  long  further  delay,  accompanied 
by  wearing  labour,  would  almost  certainly  have  meant  that 
the  weakest  of  our  party  would  have  begun  to  die.  .  .  . 
The  previous  evening  Cherrie  had  killed  two  monkeys  and 
Kermit  one,  and  we  all  had  a  few  mouthfuls  of  fresh  meat; 
we  already  had  a  good  soup  made  out  of  a  turtle  Kermit  had 
caught.  When  a  number  of  men  doing  hard  work  are 
most  of  the  time  on  half  rations,  they  grow  to  take  a  lively 
interest  in  any  reasonably  full  meal  that  does  arrive.  . 

The  wearing  work  under  the  unhealthy  conditions  was 
beginning  to  tell  on  everyone.  Half  of  the  Camarads  had 
been  down  with  fever  and  were  much  weaker;  only  a  few  of 
them  retained  their  original  physical  and  moral  strength. 
Cherrie  and  Kermit  had  recovered;  but  both  Kermit  and 
Lyra  had  bad  sores  on  their  legs  from  the  bruises  received 
in  the  water  work.  I  was  in  worse  shape.  The  after  ef 
fects  of  the  fever  still  hung  on  and  the  leg  which  had  been 
hurt  while  working  in  the  rapids  had  taken  a  turn  for  the 
bad  and  had  developed  into  an  abscess.  The  good  doctor, 
to  whose  unwearied  care  and  kindness  I  owe  much,  had  cut 
it  open  and  inserted  a  drainage  tube;  an  added  charm  being 
given  the  operation  and  the  subsequent  dressings  by  the  en 
thusiasm  with  which  the  piums  and  boroshudas,  two  species 
of  stinging  flies,  took  part  therein.  I  could  hardly  hobble 
and  was  pretty  well  laid  up.  But  "there  aren't  any  'Stop, 


276    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

conductor!'  while  a  battery's  changing  ground."  No  one 
has  any  business  to  go  on  such  a  trip  as  ours  unless  he  will 
refuse  to  jeopardize  the  welfare  of  his  associates  by  any  delay 
caused  by  a  weakness  or  ailment  of  his.  It  is  his  duty  to  go 
forward,  if  necessary  on  all  fours,  until  he  drops. 


It  is  true  that  Roosevelt  did  not  jeopardize  the 
welfare  of  his  associates,  that  he  got  out  safely, 
and  that  he  had  five  years  more  of  active  and  useful 
life,  but  he  told  me  once  on  his  return  that  at  the 
climax  of  this  experience  he  seriously  considered, 
not  from  despondency  but  from  a  sense  of  moral 
duty,  whether  he  ought  not  to  end  his  life  then  and 
there  in  order  to  save  his  companions — who  were 
being  delayed  by  his  disability — from  the  danger  of 
death  by  starvation. 

When  an  assassin  shot  him  in  Milwaukee  during 
the  Progressive  campaign,  making  a  wound  that 
would  have  laid  many  a  man  low,  he  insisted  upon 
going  to  the  hall  and  completing  the  speech  that  he 
was  engaged  to  make.  He  said:  "It  may  be  the 
last  message  that  I  shall  ever  be  able  to  utter."// 

Roosevelt  had  just  entered  an  automobile  at 
the  doorway  of  the  Gilpatrick  Hotel  in  Milwaukee 
on  his  way  to  make  a  political  address  at  the 
Auditorium  of  that  city  about  the  middle  of 
October,  1912.  He  was  standing  up  in  the  car 
when  the  assassin  drew  a  revolver  and  fired  point 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  277 

blank.  The  assassin  was  immediately  overpowered. 
Roosevelt's  first  thought  was  to  save  his  assailant 
from  bodily  injury,  for  when  the  man  Schrank  was 
brought  before  him  for  identification  the  only  re 
proach  he  uttered  was:  "Don't  hurt  the  poor  crea 
ture."  Every  effort  was  made  to  induce  Mr. 
Roosevelt  to  receive  immediate  medical  attention, 
but  he  refused.  After  his  speech,  which  because 
of  the  circumstances  of  its  delivery  is  unique  in 
the  history  of  oratory,  he  was  taken  to  the  hospital 
first  in  Milwaukee  and  then  in  Chicago  and  X-ray 
photographs  showed  that  the  bullet  struck  an 
inch  to  the  right  and  an  inch  below  the  right 
nipple,  fractured  the  fourth  rib,  happily  did 
not  puncture  the  lung  cavity  but  ranged  upward 
and  inward  four  inches  in  the  chest  wall. 

About  a  week  later  he  was  removed  to  his  home 
at  Oyster  Bay  and  I  saw  him  there  very  soon  after 
his  arrival.  H6  was  in  bed,  and  there  were  still 
signs  of  blood  showing  on  the  bandages  which  his 
wound  required.  How,  under  the  circumstances, 
a  mortal  man  could  have  kept  on  his  feet  and 
spoken  for  an  hour,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  con 
ceive.  He  began  his  speech  in  Milwaukee  in  this 
way: 

Friends,  I  shall  have  to  ask  you  to  be  as  quiet  as  possible. 
I  do  not  know  whether  you  fully  understand  that  I  have  been 


278    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

shot,  but  it  takes  more  than  that  to  kill  a  Bull  Moose  [the 
slang  term  describing  a  member  of  the  Progressive  party,  a 
term  adopted  as  a  badge  of  honour  by  the  Progressives  them 
selves].  But,  fortunately  I  had  my  manuscript  [holding  up 
the  manuscript  and  showing  the  audience  where  the  bullet 
had  gone  through],  so  you  see  I  was  going  to  make  a  long 
speech!  And,  friends,  the  hole  in  it  is  where  the  bullet  went 
through,  and  it  probably  saved  the  bullet  from  going  into  my 
heart.  The  bullet  is  in  me  now  so  that  I  cannot  make  a  very 
long  speech.  But  I  will  try  my  best.  .  .  . 

First  of  all,  I  want  to  say  this  about  myself.  I  have  alto 
gether  too  many  important  things  to  think  of  to  pay  any 
heed  or  to  feel  any  concern  over  my  own  death.  ...  I 
want  you  to  understand  that  I  am  ahead  of  the  game  any 
way.  No  man  has  had  a  happier  life  than  I  have  had,  a 
happier  life  in  every  way.  ...  I  am  not  speaking  for 
myself  at  all — I  give  you  my  word,  I  do  not  care  a  rap  about 
being  shot,  not  a  rap.  I  have  had  a  good  many  experiences 
in  my  time,  and  this  is  only  one  of  them.  What  I  do  care 
for  is  my  country.  I  wish  I  were  able  to  impress  upon  our 
people  the  duty  to  feel  strongly,  but  to  speak  truthfully  of 
their  opponents.  ...  I  say  now  that  I  have  never  said 
on  the  stump  one  word  against  any  opponent  that  I  could  not 
substantiate  .  .  .  nothing  that,  looking  back,  I  would 
not  say  again. 


After  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  concluded  that  portion 
of  his  speech  in  which  he  referred  to  his  injury,  he 
turned  to  the  concrete  issues  of  the  campaign,  and 
spoke  as  if  he  had  been  delivering  one  of  those  ad 
dresses  which  were  a  matter  of  daily  routine  with 
him.  After  he  had  been  speaking  for  some  time 
he  turned  to  the  physician  who,  as  a  precautionary 


©Underwood  &  Underwood 

Colonel  Roosevelt  in  the  Yosemite  Valley 


©  Underwood  &  Underwood 


A  hunting  trip  in  Colorado 


V" 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  279 

measure  was  sitting  close  by  him,  and  said,  "  How 
long  have  I  been  speaking?''  " Three  quarters  of 
an  hour,"  replied  the  doctor,  glancing  at  his  watch. 
"Well,"  said  Mr.  Roosevelt  with  a  smile,  "I  will 
talk  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  more."  Actually  he 
spoke  altogether  for  nearly  an  hour  and  a  half. 

After  he  recovered,  a  group  of  us  were  discussing 
the  event  at  one  of  our  editorial  luncheons.  Some 
one  reported  that  a  newspaper  despatch  had  stated 
that  Roosevelt's  motive  in  insisting  upon  keeping 
his  engagement  to  speak  was  the  desire  to  relieve 
his  friends,  especially  the  Progressives  all  over  the 
country,  from  the  anxiety  of  supposing  that  he 
was  dangerously  injured.  Roosevelt  laughed: 

"That  would  certainly  have  been  very  consid 
erate,"  was  his  comment,  "but  I  must  admit  that 
it  never  occurred  to  me.  I  suppose  my  real  feeling 
was  an  instinctive  desire  not  to  give  up.  Pioneers, 
soldiers,  boxers,  and  men  of  that  type — and  I  have 
had  some  of  the  experience  of  all  three  in  my  life — 
are  trained  not  to  give  way  under  attack,  not 
to  let  the  other  fellow  for  a  minute  think  you  are 
down  and  out."  In  other  words,  in  the  phrase 
of  to-day,  he  wanted  to  "  carry  on." 

The  Milwaukee  speech  was  a  great  and  memor 
able  physical  feat.  Nothing  but  the  most  perfect 
self-control  and  the  highest  kind  of  physical  cour- 


280    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

age  could  have  carried  any  man  through  it.  But 
Roosevelt's  moral  courage  was  as  striking  as  his 
physical  courage. 

Of  this  the  Progressive  campaign  is  perhaps  a 
sufficient  example.  He  sacrificed  friendships  and 
associations  that  were  very  dear  to  him.  But  the 
loss  of  them  did  not  deter  him  from  pursuing  a 
course  that  seemed  to  him  to  be  just  and  right. 
He  also  sacrificed  the  personal  prestige  which  every 
man  who  has  won  it  likes  to  preserve,  and  subjected 
himself  to  an  extraordinary  amount  of  contumely 
and  abusq/./  The  Philadelphia  North  American, 
on  October  10,  1912,  four  days  before  Roosevelt 
was  shot,  published  the  following  list  of  epithets 
applied  to  Roosevelt  by  a  certain  American  news 
paper  of  the  opposition  in  the  issues  of  a  single 
month : 


"Shrieks  his  hostility";  "ridiculous";  "contemptible"; 
"his  antics";  "gnashing  his  teeth";  "eager  to  use  fraud"; 
"unparalleled  viciousness  and  dishonesty";  "a  dangerous 
demagogue";  "insensate  ambition";  "charlatanism";  "plain 
aberration";  "bad  faith";  "unworthy  methods";  "shocking 
demagogism";  "baseless  and  dangerous  appeals";  "no 
scruples";  "revolutionary  and  subversive";  "horrible  glib- 
ness";  "indecent  performance";  "Aaron  Burr";  "shame 
less";  "crazy  socialistic  scheme";  "blatant  insincerity"; 
"hypocritical  and  dangerous";  "howling  mobocracy"; 
'* shabby  tactics";  "damning  proof  of  hypocrisy";  "hollow 
and  untrustworthy";  "duplicity";  "shrewd  political  trick- 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  281 

cry";  "utter  untrustworthiness";  "dangerous  and  self- 
seeking  autocrat";  "unblushing  effrontery";  "squalid  ban 
dying  of  words";  "no  respect  for  truth." 

One  of  the  results  of  the  Progressive  campaign 
was  a  libel  suit  which  at  the  time  greatly  interested 
the  entire  country  as  a  cause  celebre.  In  October, 
1912,  a  weekly  newspaper  of  Michigan,  called  Iron 
Ore,  published  a  scurrilous  article  which,  after 
accusing  Roosevelt  of  political  and  personal  black 
guardism,  said :  "  He  gets  drunk,  too,  and  that  not 
infrequently,  and  all  his  intimates  know  about  it." 

Mr.  Roosevelt  instantly  brought  action  for  libel 
against  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  this  paper  and 
the  case  was  tried  in  Marquette,  Mich.,  during 
the  week  of  May  26-31,  1913. 

It  has  sometimes  been  asked  why  Roosevelt 
should  have  sued  a  small  weekly  publication  in 
Michigan.  It  was  because  the  statement  as  to  his 
drunkenness,  although  a  matter  of  rumour  and 
gossip,  was  published  in  this  instance  for  the  first 
time  by  a  responsible  man  of  sufficient  means  to 
make  the  libel  suit  really  effective.  A  large  party 
of  friends  and  supporters  accompanied  Mr.  Roose 
velt  to  Marquette,  glad  to  go  as  witnesses  in  his 
behalf.  This  group  of  friends  literally  invaded  the 
little  town  of  Marquette,  which  is  beautifully  situ 
ated  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  and  were 


282    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

received  with  cordiality  and  hospitality  by  Roose 
velt's  many  friends  in  the  community.  The  com 
pany  included  a  large  number  of  distinguished 
persons. 

It  is,  I  believe,  a  principle  of  trials  for  libel  in 
this  country  that  the  plaintiff  may  make  certain 
pleadings  that  will  compel  the  defendant  to  open  the 
case  and  prove  his  statement  if  he  can  do  so. 
The  plaintiff  may  then  submit  the  case  for  judicial 
decision  without  introducing  any  evidence  if  the  de 
fendant  fails  to  make  good,  thus  avoiding  what  is 
sometimes  an  awkward  inquiry  into  his,  the  plain 
tiff's,  private  life.  This  was  not  Roosevelt's  method. 
He  wished  to  go  on  record  himself  and  have  his 
friends  on  record  in  telling  frankly  all  the  facts  about 
his  alleged  use  of  intoxicating  beverages.  He  him 
self  was  the  first  witness  and  related  with  delightful 
frankness  what  his  custom  was  as  to  the  use  of  wine 
and  stated  that  he  not  only  did  not  use  but  dis 
liked  whisky,  brandy,  and  beer.  His  testimony 
which  showed  his  rather  unusual  abstention  from 
alcoholic  beverages  was  confirmed  by  his  Cabinet 
associates,  by  his  physician,  and  by  his  personal 
friends.  For  example,  Dr.  Alexander  Lambert, 
his  family  physician,  testified  that  he  had  known 
Roosevelt  for  twenty-two  years;  had  been  in  and 
out  of  his  household  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  283 

night;  had  been  off  with  him  on  hunting  trips; 
attributed  his  remarkable  recovery  from  the  as 
sassin's  bullet  in  Milwaukee  "to  his  splendid,  un- 
poisoned  physique";  and  declared  that  he  "was  an 
exceedingly  temperate  man,  and  an  unusually 
abstemious  one."  This  was  the  view  of  a  great 
array  of  witnesses,  whose  accounts  of  Roosevelt 
really  amounted  to  a  delightful  kind  of  biography 
of  him. 

When  Roosevelt's  lawyers  rested  their  case  the 
defendant  actually  threw  up  his  hands.  He  could 
produce  no  testimony  whatever,  except  hear-say 
evidence.  In  exculpation  of  his  act  he  said  that 
his  article  was  written  because  of  his,  the  defend 
ant's,  opposition  to  Roosevelt's  candidacy;  that 
his  statement  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  drinking  to  ex 
cess  was  based  upon  common  gossip;  and  that  he 
now  in  open  court  withdrew  the  charge.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  while  this  capitulation  was  expressed 
in  legal  terms  it  was  evident,  not  only  to  the  spec 
tators  but  to  the  Court,  that  the  defendant  who 
had  made  the  libellous  accusation  had  not  a  leg 
to  stand  on. 

Before  the  presiding  Justice  charged  the  jury 
Mr.  Roosevelt  addressed  the  Court  as  follows: 

Your  Honor,  in  view  of  the  statement  of  the  defendant, 
I  ask  the  Court  to  instruct  the  jury  that  I  desire  only  nomi- 


284    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

nal  damages.  I  did  not  go  into  this  suit  for  money;  I  did 
not  go  into  it  for  any  vindictive  purpose.  I  went  into  it, 
and  as  the  Court  has  said,  I  made  my  reputation  an  issue 
because  I  wish  once  for  all  during  my  lifetime  thoroughly 
and  comprehensively  to  deal  with  these  slanders  so  that 
never  again  will  it  be  possible  for  any  man  in  good  faith  to 
repeat  them.  I  have  achieved  my  purpose,  and  I  am  con 
tent. 

Whereupon  the  presiding  Justice,  Judge  Flanni- 
gan,  of  the  Circuit  Court  for  the  County  of  Mar- 
quette,  State  of  Michigan,  charged  the  jury  in 
these  words: 

The  injury  to  the  reputation  and  feelings  of  the  plaintiff 
which  naturally,  proximately,  and  necessarily  followed  upon 
the  false  publication,  would  warrant  a  verdict  in  the  plain 
tiff's  favour  in  a  substantial  amount,  and  would  sustain  a 
verdict  in  any  sum  up  to  the  amount  claimed  in  the  plain 
tiff's  declaration,  which  is  ten  thousand  dollars. 

But,  as  the  Court  is  advised  by  the  plaintiff,  the  object 
of  the  plaintiff  in  bringing  and  prosecuting  this  action  being 
the  vindication  of  his  good  name  and  reputation,  and  not  the 
recovery  of  a  money  judgment;  and  he  having  in  open 
court  freely  waived  his  right  to  the  assessment  of  his  actual 
damages,  it  only  remains  for  the  Court  to  direct  a  verdict 
in  his  favour  for  nominal  damages,  which,  under  the  law  of 
Michigan,  is  the  sum  of  six  cents. 

You  are,  therefore,  gentlemen,  directed  to  render  a  verdict 
in  favour  of  the  plaintiff  for  that  amount. 

It  should  be  added  as  a  matter  of  record  that  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  case  was  entrusted  to  the  firm  of 
Messrs.  Bowers  and  Sands  of  New  York  City  who 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  285 

after  the  trial  refused  to  accept  any  fee  whatsoever 
on  the  ground  that  they  believed  they  were  per 
forming  a  public  service  in  defending  an  ex-Presi 
dent  from  slander. 

It  required  moral  courage  on  the  part  of  Roose 
velt  to  subject  his  private  life  to  the  kind  of  inter 
rogatory  and  analytical  searching  that  takes  place 
in  a  libel  suit,  and  his  request  to  the  Court  that 
the  defendant,  whose  original  publication  had  been 
unusually  vindictive  and  scurrilous,  should  be  re 
lieved  of  the  final  burden  of  his  unjust  act  when 
he  virtually  apologized  for  it,(displays  the  warm 
hearted  magnanimity  of  .Roosevelt  toward  a  van 
quished  enemy-y-one  of  his  marked  characteris 
tics. 

No  man  that  I  have  known  liked  personal  ap 
proval  more  than  Roosevelt.  He  had  a  kind  of 
childlike  responsiveness  to  commendation  and 
praise.  He  did  not  wear  his  heart  on  his  sleeve, 
but  I  think  he  was  really  hurt  when  those  to  whom 
he  was  attached  were  displeased  with  him.  There 
are  people  who  thought  he  was  thick-skinned.  On 
the  contrary,  he  was  highly  sensitive;  by  this  I 
do  not  mean  that  he  ever  showed  pique  or  irrita 
tion  or  resentment  or  hysterical  sorrow  which  are 
the  things  that  come  to  mind  when  we  speak  of  a 
"sensitive  girl";  I  mean  sensitive  in  the  exact  use' 


286    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

of  the  word — quick  to  receive  impressions.  But 
if  this  sensitiveness  to  mental  or  spiritual  sensa 
tions  pained  him  he  rarely  if  ever  gave  any  sign, 
except  by  depending  more  and  more  upon  the  devo 
tion  and  affection  of  those  who  liked  and  trusted 
him.  He  was,  as  he  says  in  his  Milwaukee  speech, 
a  happy  man.  I  never  knew  him  to  be  "blue" 
or  despondent  or  to  complain  of  disappointments 
or  an  adverse  fate.  His  courage  was  buoyant  and 
unshaken  to  the  last. 

The  third  of  Roosevelt's  qualities  which  I  wish 
to  make  note  of — the  quality  that,  to  me,  was  the 
most  appealing  and  engaging  in  his  personality  and 
that  I  most  naturally  and  instinctively  think  of 
when  I  recall  him  to  mind — was  his  SENSE  OF 
HUMOUR. 

A  sense  of  humour  is  not  merely  an  agreeable  and 
pleasing  social  virtue  of  an  ephemeral  and  super 
ficial  kind;  it  is  a  fundamental  virtue.  A  man  who 
possesses  a  sense  of  humour  can  be  neither  vain, 
nor  conceited,  nor  a  prig,  nor  a  pedant.  For  if 
he  falls  into  any  of  these  errors,  which  are  so  apt  to 
entrap  men  of  great  reputation  who  receive  much 
public  adulation,  his  sense  of  humour  comes  to  the 
rescue  and  punctures  the  bubble  of  self-glorifica 
tion. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  and  spiritual  of  all  the 


nderwood  &  Underwood 


Mr.    and    Mrs.    Roosevelt    with   their  children,  Theodore, 
Kermit,  Ethel,  Archie,  and  Quentin  at  Sagamore  Hill 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  287 

saints  in  the  calendar  of  the  Church,  St.  Francis 
of  Assisi,  so  appreciated  the  virtue  of  a  sense  of 
humour  that  he  urged  its  cultivation,  in  one  of  the 
precepts  of  the  Rule  of  his  Brotherhood.  Sabatier, 
in  his  delightful  "Life  of  St.  Francis,"  quotes  this 
precept  and  remarks:  "In  the  history  of  the  early 
Franciscan  missions  there  are  bursts  of  laughter 
which  ring  out  high  and  clear." 
The  precept,  as  Sabatier  gives  it,  reads  as  follows: 

Caveant  fratres  quod  non  ostendant  se  tristes  extrinsecus 
nubilosos  et  hypocritas;  sed  ostendant  se  gaudentes  in  Dom- 
ine,  hilares  et  convenientes  gratiosos. 

As  this  Latin  was  the  colloquial  language  of  the 
mediaeval  Church,  I  venture  to  translate  it  into 
our  own  colloquial  vernacular: 

Let  the  brothers  take  care  not  to  appear  long-faced, 
gloomy  or  over-pious;  but  let  them  be  joyous  about  their 
faith  in  God,  laughing  and  good  mixers. 

Roosevelt  certainly  was  joyous  in  his  faith  that  • 
there  is  a  power  that  makes  for  righteousness  in 
the  universe  and  he  was  convenienter  gratiosus,  a 
good  mixer  in  the  best  sense  of  the  phrase.  The 
characteristic  falsetto  intonation  of  his  voice  when 
he  felt  the  humour  of  what  he  was  saying  was  inde 
scribably  infectious  in  its  cheerfulness. 


288    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

This  sense  of  humour  crops  out  in  much  of 
Roosevelt's  writing.  It  is  especially  to  be  found 
in  certain  chapters  of  his  Autobiography  and  in 
the  "  Rough  Riders/'  Take  this  example  from 
the  chapter  entitled  "The  Vigour  of  Life"  in  the 
Autobiography.  It  is  permissible,  now  that  both 
men  have  gone  on,  to  say  that  the  "  prize-fighting 
friend"  about  whom  Mr.  Roosevelt  relates  the 
incident  was  John  L.  Sullivan. 

On  one  occasion  one  of  my  prize-fighting  friends  called  on 
me  at  the  White  House,  on  business.  He  explained  that  he 
wished  to  see  me  alone,  sat  down  opposite  me,  and  put  a  very 
expensive  cigar  on  the  desk,  saying:  "Have  a  cigar."  I 
thanked  him  and  said  I  did  not  smoke,  to  which  he  responded: 
"Put  it  in  your  pocket."  This  I  accordingly  did. 

Having  thus  shown,  at  the  outset,  the  necessary  formal 
courtesy,  my  visitor,  an  old  and  valued  friend,  proceeded  to 
explain  that  a  nephew  of  his  had  enlisted  in  the  Marine  Corps, 
had  been  absent  without  leave,  and  was  threatened  with  dis 
honourable  discharge  on  the  ground  of  desertion.  My  visi 
tor,  a  good  citizen  and  a  patriotic  American,  was  stung  to  the 
quick  at  the  thought  of  such  an  incident  occurring  in  his  fam 
ily,  and  he  explained  to  me  that  it  must  not  occur — that 
there  must  not  be  the  disgrace  to  the  family — although  he 
would  be  delighted  to  have  the  offender  "handled  rough" 
to  teach  him  a  needed  lesson.  He  added  that  he  wished  I 
would  take  him  and  handle  him  myself,  for  he  knew  that  I 
would  see  that  he  "got  all  that  was  coming  to  him." 

Then  a  look  of  pathos  came  into  his  eyes,  and  he  explained : 
"That  boy  I  just  cannot  understand.  He  was  my  sister's 
favourite  son,  and  I  always  took  a  special  interest  in  him  my 
self.  I  did  my  best  to  bring  him  up  the  way  he  ought  to  go. 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  289 

But  there  was  just  nothing  to  be  done  with  him.     His  tastes 
were  naturally  low.     He  took  to  music ! " 

What  form  this  debasing  taste  for  music  assumed  I  did  not 
inquire;  and  I  was  able  to  grant  my  friend's  wish. 


Or  this,  from  Roosevelt's  autobiographic  account 
of  his  experiences  as  Police  Commissioner  at  a  time 
when  he  was  carrying  on  a  crusade  against  illegal 
liquor  selling: 


All  kinds  of  incidents  occurred  in  connection  with  this 
crusade.  One  of  them  introduced  me  to  a  friend  who  re 
mains  a  friend  yet.  His  name  was  Edward  J.  Bourke.  He 
was  one  of  the  men  who  entered  the  police  force  through  our 
examinations  shortly  after  I  took  office.  I  had  summoned 
twenty  or  thirty  of  the  successful  applicants  to  let  me  look 
them  over;  and  as  I  walked  into  the  hall,  one  of  them,  a  well- 
set-up  man,  called  out  sharply  to  the  others:  "Gangway!" — 
making  them  move  to  one  side.  I  found  he  had  served  in 
the  United  States  navy.  The  incident  was  sufficient  to 
make  me  keep  him  in  mind. 

A  month  later  I  was  notified  by  a  police  reporter,  a  very 
good  fellow,  that  Bourke  was  in  difficulties,  and  that  he 
thought  I  had  better  look  into  the  matter  myself,  as  Bourke 
was  being  accused  by  certain  very  influential  men  of  grave 
misconduct  in  an  arrest  he  had  made  the  night  before.  Ac 
cordingly,  I  took  the  matter  up  personally.  I  found  that  on 
the  new  patrolman's  beat  the  preceding  night — a  new  beat — 
there  was  a  big  saloon  run  by  a  man  of  great  influence  in 
political  circles  known  as  "King"  Calahan.  After  midnight 
the  saloon  was  still  running  in  full  blast,  and  Bourke,  step 
ping  inside,  told  Calahan  to  close  up.  It  was  at  the  time  filled 
with  "friends  of  personal  liberty,"  as  Governor  Hill  used  at 


290    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

that  time,  in  moments  of  pathos,  to  term  everybody  who  re 
garded  as  tyranny  any  restriction  on  the  sale  of  liquor. 
Calahan's  saloon  had  never  before  in  its  history  been  closed, 
and  to  have  a  green  cop  tell  him  to  close  it  seemed  to  him  so 
incredible  that  he  regarded  it  merely  as  a  bad  jest. 

On  his  next  round  Bourke  stepped  in  and  repeated  the 
order.  Calahan  felt  that  the  jest  had  gone  too  far,  and,  by 
way  of  protest,  knocked  Bourke  down.  This  was  an  error 
of  judgment  on  his  part,  for  when  Bourke  arose  he  knocked 
Calahan  down.  The  two  then  grappled  and  fell  on  the  floor, 
while  the  "friends  of  personal  liberty"  danced  around  the 
fight  and  endeavoured  to  stamp  on  everything  they  thought 
wasn't  Calahan.  However,  Bourke,  though  pretty  roughly 
handled,  got  his  man  and  shut  the  saloon.  When  he  ap 
peared  against  the  lawbreaker  in  court  next  day,  he  found 
the  court-room  crowded  with  influential  Tammany  Hall 
politicians,  backed  by  one  or  two  Republican  leaders  of  the 
same  type;  for  Calahan  was  a  baron  of  the  underworld,  and 
both  his  feudal  superiors  and  his  feudal  inferiors  gathered  to 
the  rescue.  His  backers  in  court  included  a  Congressman 
and  a  State  Senator,  and  so  deep-rooted  was  the  police  belief 
in  "pull"  that  his  own  superiors  had  turned  against  Bourke 
and  were  preparing  to  sacrifice  him. 

Just  at  this  time  I  acted  on  the  infcrmation  given  me  by 
my  newspaper  friend  by  starting  in  person  for  the  court. 
The  knowledge,  that  I  knew  what  was  going  on,  that  I 
meant  what  I  said,  and  that  I  intended  to  make  the  affair 
personal,  was  all  that  was  necessary.  Before  I  reached  the 
court  all  effort  to  defend  Calahan  had  promptly  ceased, 
and  Bourke  had  come  forth  triumphant.  I  immediately 
promoted  him  to  roundsman.  He  is  a  captain  now.  He  has 
been  on  the  force  ever  since,  save  that  when  the  Spanish 
War  came  he  obtained  a  holiday  without  pay  for  six  months 
and  reentered  the  navy,  serving  as  gun  captain  in  one  of  the 
gunboats,  and  doing  his  work,  as  was  to  be  expected,  in  first- 
rate  fashion,  especially  when  under  fire. 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  291 

Roosevelt  greatly  rejoiced  in  his  experience  with 
the  Rough  Riders — not  only  in  the  serious  and 
soldierly  part  of  it  but  in  the  human  and  humorous 
part,  as  will  be  seen  from  this  allusion  to  some  of 
the  characters  of  the  regiment : 


The  men  speedily  gave  one  another  nicknames,  largely 
conferred  in  a  spirit  of  derision,  their  basis  lying  in  contrast. 
A  brave  but  fastidious  member  of  a  well-known  Eastern 
club  who  was  serving  in  the  ranks  was  christened  "Tough 
Ike";  and  his  bunkie,  the  man  who  shared  his  shelter-tent, 
who  was  a  decidedly  rough  cow-puncher,  gradually  acquired 
the  name  of  "The  Dude."  One  unlucky  and  simple-minded 
cow-puncher,  who  had  never  been  east  of  the  great  plains  in 
his  life,  unwarily  boasted  that  he  had  an  aunt  in  New  York, 
and  ever  afterward  went  by  the  name  of  "Metropolitan  Bill." 
A  huge  red-headed  Irishman  was  named  "Sheeny  Solomon." 
A  young  Jew  who  developed  into  one  of  the  best  fighters  in 
the  regiment  accepted,  with  entire  equanimity,  the  name  of 
"Pork-chop."  We  had  quite  a  number  of  professional 
gamblers,  who,  I  am  bound  to  say,  usuallymade  good  soldiers. 
One,  who  was  almost  abnormally  quiet  and  gentle,  was  called 
"Hell  Roarer";  while  another,  who  in  point  of  language  and 
deportment  was  his  exact  antithesis,  was  christened  "  Prayer 
ful  James." 


One  of  the  delightful  qualities  of  his  humour 
was  that  he  enjoyed  a  joke  at  his  own  expense  quite 
as  much  as  one  based  on  an  oddity  or  quirk  in  some-  / 
one  else.     Here  is  an  example  from  the  "Rough 
Riders": 


292    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  paper  work  to  be  done;  but  as  I 
still  had  charge  of  the  brigade  only  a  little  of  it  fell  on  my 
shoulders.  Of  this  I  was  sincerely  glad,  for  I  knew  as  little 
of  the  paper  work  as  my  men  had  originally  known  of  drill. 
We  had  all  of  us  learned  how  to  fight  and  march;  but  the 
exact  limits  of  our  rights  and  duties  in  other  respects  were  not 
very  clearly  defined  in  our  minds;  and  as  for  myself,  as  I 
had  no  .  had  the  time  to  learn  exactly  what  they  were,  I  had 
assumed  a  large  authority  in  giving  rewards  and  punishments. 
In  particular  I  had  looked  on  court-martials  much  as  Peter 
Bell  looked  on  primroses — they  were  court-martials  and 
nothing  more,  whether  resting  on  the  authority  of  a  lieuten 
ant-colonel  or  of  a  major-general.  The  mustering-out  officer, 
a  thorough  soldier,  found  to  his  horror  that  I  had  used  the 
widest  discretion  both  in  imposing  heavy  sentences  which  I 
had  no  power  to  impose  on  men  who  shirked  their  duties, 
and,  where  men  atoned  for  misconduct  by  marked  gallantry, 
in  blandly  remitting  sentences  approved  by  my  chief  of  divi 
sion.  However,  I  had  done  substantial — even  though  some 
what  rude  and  irregular — justice,  and  no  harm  could  result, 
as  we  were  just  about  to  be  mustered  out. 


Another  instance  of  his  enjoyment  of  chaffing 
himself  that  I  often  like  to  think  of  occurred  in  the 
early  days  of  my  editorial  association  with  him. 
We  used  to  meet  at  a  weekly  round-table  confer 
ence  in  which  Roosevelt  regularly  took  part. 
These  meetings  were  generally  held  on  Mondays 
at  eleven  o'clock  in  the  forenoon. 

One  Monday  morning  he  went  to  Brooklyn  with 
some  friends  to  inspect  some  model  tenement 
houses  in  that  borough,  and  did  not  reach  the  con- 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  293 

ference  until  between  twelve  and  one.  When  he 
came  in  he  was  full  of  his  experience  and  began  to 
tell  us  about  it.  He  had  gone  quietly  and  wished 
to  avoid  any  publicity,  "But,"  said  he,  "for  some 
reason  or  other  which  I  do  not  quite  understand, 
the  people  recognized  me,  especially  the  children, 
and  a  crowd  of  the  latter  gathered  around  me." 

We  all  smiled,  for  it  should  be  explained  that  his 
characteristic  feature,  which  was  always  seized 
upon  by  the  newspaper  cartoonists,  was  a  mouth 
ful  of  unusually  fine  and  white  teeth,  which  he  un 
consciously  displayed  whenever  he  laughed  or 
talked  emphatically. 

r,  Noticing  the  smiles  on  our  faces  he  at  once 
addedl  "Yes,  I  suppose  there  is  something  dis 
tinctive  in  my  physiognomy.  I  remember  that 
when  I  was  running  for  the  vice-Presidency  I  had 
to  speak  in  a  Western  town  where  the  crowd  in  the 
hall  was  so  dense  that  the  officers  in  charge  had 
great  difficulty  in  making  a  way  for  me  through 
the  packed  audience  to  get  to  the  stage  where  I 
was  to  speak.  Mr.  Dooley's  comment  was  [Mr. 
Dooley  as  every  contemporary  American  knows 
is  the  newspaper  pseudonym  of  one  of  our  most 
delightful  and  accomplished  humourists]:  'And 
thin  along  came  Teddy  Rosenfeld  and  bit  his  way 
to  the  platform!'" 


294    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt  recalled  this  genial  caricature  with 
evident  gusto. 

In  June,  1910,  the  Roosevelt  party  arrived  in 
London  very  early  in  the  morning,  having  travelled 
from  Berlin  during  the  night  by  the  Flushing- 
Queensborough  route.  Mr.  Roosevelt  went  to 
Dorchester  House  where  he  was  the  guest  of  Am 
bassador  Whitelaw  Reid,  while  I  took  up  my  quar 
ters  in  a  near-by  hotel.  Immediately  after  break 
fast  and  after  having  removed  some  of  the  stain 
of  travel,  I  went  round  to  Dorchester  House  and 
by  ten  or  eleven  o'clock  was  engaged  with  Colonel 
Roosevelt  over  a  great  pile  of  accumulated  mail, 
in  a  sitting  room  or  "study"  which  Mr.  Reid  had 
placed  at  his  disposal.  It  was  a  good  deal  of  a  task 
and  one  that  was  usually  irksome  to  Mr.  Roosevelt, 
although  he  performed  it  faithfully.  A  knock  at 
the  half-open  door,  accompanied  by  laboured 
breathing,  showed  that  somebody  was  there  in  a 
state  of  suppressed  excitement.  I  said  "  Come  in," 
when  one  of  the  liveried,  silk-stockinged  footmen 
— a  typical  before-the-war  English  flunky — entered 
and  announced  in  an  evidently  awe-struck  voice — 
for  kings  were  not  in  the  habit  of  calling  on  pri 
vate  citizens  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning:  "The 
King  of is  below,  sir." 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  295 

Mr.  Roosevelt,  of  course,  had  to  go  down,  not 
only  because  it  was  a  king,  but  because  it  was  a 
monarch  (not  the  Kaiser,  let  me  hasten  to  add!) 
for  whom  he  had  formed  a  real  respect  and 
friendship  during  his  journey  in  northern  Eu 
rope.  Nevertheless,  as  the  Colonel  rose  he  threw 
down  his  pen,  with  a  mixture  of  annoyance  (at  being 
interrupted)  and  amusement,  and  exclaimed:  "Con 
found  these  kings;  will  they  never  leave  me  alone!" 

Another  royal  or  semi-royal  anecdote  comes  to 
my  mind.  At  Stockholm  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  a 
guest  in  the  palace,  a  fine  and  spacious  edifice  of 
unusually  large  and  impressive  dimensions,  where 
the  hospitality  extended  to  the  party  was  of  the 
most  genuine  and  delightful  kind.  The  suite  of 
apartments  which  had  been  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  his  family  was  elaborate, 
and  I  had  assigned  to  me  on  another  floor  a  bed 
room  and  a  sitting  room  with  a  man-servant  to 
attend  to  my  wants.  My  bath  was  brought  in 
each  morning  in  a  portable  tub  after  the  old-time 
European  fashion,  but  while  every  comfort  was 
provided,  the  palace,  so  far  as  I  could  find,  lacked 
the  modern  plumbing  upon  which  Americans  are  so 
accustomed  to  depend.  When  we  left  Stockholm 
by  train,  which  had  been  equipped  with  a  private 
saloon  carriage  and  private  dining  car  for  Mr. 


296    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt  by  his  royal  host,  I  asked  him  whether 
he  had  discovered  any  modern  plumbing  in  the 
palace.  He  replied,  with  a  quizzical  look:  "No;  I 
don't  like  living  in  these  palaces  because  you  can't 
ring  your  bell  and  complain  of  your  room!" 

During  the  journey  through  Europe  the  English 
king,  Edward  VII,  had  died,  and  Mr.  Roosevelt 
was  appointed  by  Mr.  Taft  as  special  ambassador 
to  the  funeral.  One  of  the  things  he  had  to  do 
while  in  London  was  to  attend  the  elaborate  public 
ceremonies  of  this  funeral.  Captain  (now  Lieu 
tenant-Colonel)  Bentley  Mott,  then  our  Military 
Attache  at  Paris,  was  assigned  to  Mr.  Roosevelt 
as  his  personal  attache  in  the  performance  of  his 
ambassadorial  duties.  The  Earl  of  Dundonald 
and  Commander  Cunninghame-Graham  were  as 
signed  by  the  King  to  perform  for  Mr.  Roosevelt 
the  functions  of  what  I  suppose  would  be  called  in 
the  case  of  royal  personages,  "  Gentlemen  in  wait 
ing."  The  arrangements  had  to  be  made  by  these 
three  gentlemen  for  Mr.  Roosevelt's  part  in  the 
solemn  and  splendid  procession  which  proceeded 
through  vast  crowds  from  Buckingham  Palace  to 
Windsor.  As  Secretary  to  Mr.  Roosevelt  I  was 
called  into  the  conference.  Captain  Mott  felt  that 
Colonel  Roosevelt  should  ride  a  horse,  dressed  in 
the  conventional  long  riding  trousers,  frock  coat, 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  297 

and  high  hat.  The  Earl  of  Dundonald  and  Com 
mander  Cunninghame-Graham  courteously  agreed 
that  this  was  most  desirable,  but  regretted  that  the 
Earl  of  Norfolk,  the  prerogative  of  whose  family 
was  to  have  charge  of  all  English  coronations  and 
royal  funerals,  was  insistent  that  Mr.  Roosevelt 
should  wear  "ambassadorial  dress " — this  being, 
according  to  American  precedent,  a  swallow-tail 
evening  suit. 

Finally,  Captain  Mott  insisted  that  Colonel 
Roosevelt  should  be  called  into  the  conference. 
He  came,  the  matter  was  laid  before  him,  and  he 
said:  "Why,  Mott,  I  appreciate  your  thoughtful- 
ness,  but  I  am  here  as  an  ambassador  not  to  do 
what  I  like  but  what  the  English  people  like  as  the 
contribution  of  my  country  to  the  respect  which 
the  world  is  paying  to  the  memory  of  the  King.  If 
the  English  people  want  me  to,  I'll  wear  a  pink  coat 
and  green-striped  trousers!" 

The  result  was  that  he  did  wear  American  eve 
ning  dress  and  rode  in  the  procession  in  a  carriage 
with  M.  Pichon,  the  French  Ambassador,  to  the 
funeral,  these  two,  I  believe,  being  the  only  foreign 
representatives  who  were  "commoners."  Mr. 
Roosevelt  told  me  that  during  the  long  drive  he  had 
all  he  could  do  to  appease  M.  Pichon,  because  ac 
cording  to  the  exacting  rules  of  precedence,  their 


298    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

carriage  had  been  placed  after  that  of  the  King  of 
Siam.  This  question  of  precedence  gave  Roose 
velt  no  end  of  amusement.  He  saw  its  necessity, 
for  all  social  conventions  are  based  on  some  kind  of 
necessity,  but  its  extreme  rigour  struck  him,  as 
it  does  every  American  I  suppose,  as  sometimes 
ludicrous. 

He  told  me  that  at  the  funeral  banquet  given 
to  the  foreign  representatives  in  Buckingham  Pal 
ace  the  evening  before  the  procession  and  cere 
monies  at  Windsor — a  dinner  which  he  somewhat 
disrespectfully  referred  to  as  "the  wake'5 — the 
Kaiser  told  him  an  anecdote  of  precedence  con 
nected  with  the  funeral,  which  indicates  that  the 
Kaiser  himself  was  capable  of  perceiving  the  arti 
ficiality  of  certain  monarchical  customs.  It  seems 
that  two  royal  personages  of  eastern  Europe — I 
think  one  was  from  a  Balkan  kingdom  and  the 
other  from  an  Austrian  principality — met  with  their 
private  cars  or  saloon  carriages  at  Vienna  to  take 
the  Orient  Express  for  Paris  and  London.  They 
quarrelled  as  to  whose  rank  entitled  him  to  be  first 
on  the  train,  but  the  aide-de-camp,  let  us  say  of  the 
Balkan  personage,  was  clever  enough  to  get  his 
master's  car  coupled  directly  on  the  engine.  The 
Austrian,  therefore,  had,  willynilly,  to  take  second 
place.  Then  came  the  regular  dining  car  of  the 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  299 

train.  When  dinner  was  served  the  Balkan  High 
ness  sent  his  aide  into  the  private  car  of  the  Aus 
trian  Highness  with  his  compliments  and  might 
he  pass  through  to  the  dining  car.  No,  he  might 
not.  So  he  had  to  wait  until  the  train  came  to  a 
station,  get  out,  walk  around  his  rival's  car  into 
the  dining  car,  eat  his  dinner,  stay  there  until  an 
other  station  was  reached,  and  then  walk  around 
his  rival's  car  again  into  his  own.  As  the  Orient 
Express  makes  very  long  non-stop  runs  it  may 
easily  be  imagined  that  although  the  Balkan  celeb 
rity  got  the  first  place  on  the  train  it  was  not  by 
any  means  the  most  comfortable.  This  incident 
Roosevelt  recounted  with  the  greatest  glee. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  fact  that  in  the 
summer  of  1914,  just  before  the  European  war  broke 
out,  I  returned  from  England,  with  a  party  of 
friends  on  the  steamship  Imperator,  in  company 
with  Roosevelt.  We  had  been  over  to  play  golf; 
he  had  been  to  England  to  lecture  before  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society.  He  was  sitting  with  us  one 
afternoon  in  the  smoking  room,  although  he  did 
not  smoke  himself,  and  fell  to  talking  on  one  of  his 
favourite  topics — Americanism.  He  was  denounc 
ing  a  certain  man  in  Boston  who  during  the  Span 
ish  War,  although  purporting  to  be  an  American, 
endeavoured  to  raise  money  to  help  Spain  build  a 


3oo    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

battleship.  The  enormity  of  this  offence  grew 
upon  Roosevelt  as  he  talked  and  finally  he  raised 
his  clenched  fist  in  the  air  and  almost  at  a  loss  for 
words,  exclaimed,  "Such  a  man  as  that  should  be 
-should  be  —  should  be  —  hanged,  drawn,  and 
quartered!" 

One  of  the  group,  a  great  admirer  and  political 
follower  of  Roosevelt  who  had  met  him  personally, 
I  believe,  for  the  first  time  on  this  voyage,  leaned 
forward  and  said  with  a  chuckle:  "At  least,  Colo 
nel!"  Quick  as  a  flash  the  Colonel  turned,  took 
his  hand,  and  said :  "  I  am  delighted  to  meet  a  man, 
Mr.  Erickson,  who  thinks  my  language  is  too  mod 
erate  1"  He  did  not  go  on  with  his  denunciation. 

Two  years  afterward  Mr.  Erickson,  who  had 
become  actively  interested  in  the  formation  of  the 
Roosevelt  League  which  was  urging  the  nomina 
tion  of  Roosevelt  for  the  Presidency  of  1916,  went 
to  the  office  of  the  Colonel,  who  was  then  associ 
ated  with  the  Metropolitan  Magazine,  to  consult 
him  about  some  campaign  matters.  He  sent  in 
his  card,  and  when  he  entered  the  Colonel's  room 
he  remarked  that,  although  probably  the  Colonel 
did  not  remember  him,  he  had  had  the  pleasure  of 
crossing  with  him  on  the  Imperator  two  years 
before.  "Not  remember  you!"  exclaimed  Mr. 
Roosevelt,  "I  most  certainly  do — and  most  pleas- 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  301 

antly.  You  are  the  man  who  thinks  my  language 
is  too  moderate !" 

These  rambling  and  detached  stories,  I  am 
afraid,  give  a  very  inadequate  impression  of  what 
I  think  was  the  most  lovable  of  Roosevelt's  quali 
ties.  I  am  not  sure  but  that  it  was  the  most  im 
portant  of  his  qualities.  He  could  be  stern;  he 
could  be  severe;  he  was  occasionally  biting  al 
though  never  bitter;  he  had  a  certain  touch  of  bull 
dog  pugnacity;  but  underlying  it  all  was  a  reser 
voir  of  humour,  not  a  careless  or  indifferent  hu 
mour,  not  a  mere  jocosity,  but  humour  which  has 
its  source  in  a  spirit  of  sympathetic  and  joyous 
understanding  of  men  and  things — a  spirit  of 
which  Emerson  said  in  a  Eulogy  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott  before  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society: 
"What  an  ornament  and  safeguard  is  humour! 
Far  better  than  wit  for  a  poet  and  writer.  It  is  a 
genius  itself,  and  so  defends  from  the  insani 
ties." 

The  fourth  notable  quality  in  Roosevelt's  person 
ality  that  impressed  me  was  his  GENTLENESS. 
Early  in  his  presidential  career  he  uttered  one  of 
those  epigrammatic  phrases  for  which  he  has  become 
famous:  "Speak  softly,  but  carry  a  big  stick." 

The  big-stick  half  of  this  phrase  caught  the  pub 
lic  fancy  and  many  people,  forgetting  that  he  put 


302    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

"speaking  softly5'  first,  pictured  him  as  a  kind  of 
glorified  Irishman  carrying  a  shillalah  in  a  uni 
versal  Donnybrook  Fair  and  joyously  hitting 
every  head  he  saw.  Those  who  knew  him  best 
knew  that  this  was  a  totally  false  conception — 
that  one  of  his  pronounced  characteristics  was  a 
spirit  of  gentle  consideration  for  others. 

A  man's  general  attitude  toward  his  fellow  beings 
can  be  pretty  well  determined  if  you  can  find  out 
what  he  thinks  of  children  and  how  he  treats  them. 
What  Roosevelt  thought  of  children  is  expressed 
in  this  paragraph  from  his  Autobiography: 

There  are  many  kinds  of  success  in  life  worth  having.  It  is 
exceedingly  interesting  and  attractive  to  be  a  successful 
business  man,  or  railroad  man,  or  farmer,  or  a  successful 
lawyer,  or  doctor,  or  a  writer,  or  a  president,  or  a  ranchman, 
or  the  colonel  of  a  fighting  regiment,  or  to  kill  grizzly  bears 
and  lions.  But  for  unflagging  interest  and  enjoyment,  a 
household  of  children,  if  things  go  reasonably  well,  certainly 
makes  all  other  forms  of  success  and  achievement  lose  their 
importance  by  comparison. 

/    I  am  inclined  to  think  that  Roosevelt  was  gener- 
/ally  regarded  by  the  public  as  preeminently  a  man's 
1  man.     He  was  so  much  in  the  public  mind  as  a 
Dear  killer,  a  lion  hunter,  a  jungle  explorer,  a  Rough 
Rider,  a  "trust  buster,"  and  a  fighter  of  male 
factors  that  many  people   are   astonished  when 


V 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  303 

they  are  told  that  he  was  also  a  children's  man. 
Nobody  can  detect  a  counterfeit  child  lover  as 
quickly  as  a  child  itself.  Normal  children  respect 
and  admire  their  superiors,  especially  in  physical 
prowess,  without  regard  to  age;  but  they  despise 
and  resent  patronage.  The  man  who  assumes  a 
patronizing  air  toward  children  is  very  soon  avoided 
by  them,  but  with  magnetic  rapidity  they  cluster 
round  a  man  who  understands  them,  who  sym 
pathizes  with  them — a  very  different  thing  by 
the  way  from  sentimentalizing  over  them — and 
who  can  do  things  with  them.  This  was  the  way 
Roosevelt  treated  children,  and  the  result  was  that 
they  often  followed  him  as  if  he  had  been  a  modern 
Pied  Piper  of  Hamelin.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  the 
atmosphere  in  which  his  own  children  were  brought 
up  in  the  family  homestead,  Sagamore  Hill,  at 
Oyster  Bay.  They  swam,  rowed,  went  barefoot, 
or  camped  in  the  woods  or  on  the  beach  of  Long 
Island  Sound.  They  learned  to  shoot — for  there 
was  a  rifle-range  at  Sagamore  Hill.  They  made  pets 
of  the  various  animals  on  the  home  farm  in  the 
summer,  and  they  coasted  and  skated  in  the 
winter.  In  this  bringing  up  of  the  children  in  the 
vigour  of  outdoor  life  Mrs.  Roosevelt  was  an  active 
partner,  as  will  be  seen  by  referring  to  another 
passage  in  the  colonel's  Autobiography: 


304    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

When  their  mother  and  I  returned  from  a  row,  we  would 
often  see  the  children  waiting  for  us,  running  like  sand-spiders 
along  the  beach.  They  always  liked  to  swim  in  company 
with  a  grown-up  of  buoyant  temperament  and  inventive 
mind,  and  the  float  offered  limitless  opportunities  for  enjoy 
ment  while  bathing. 

All  dutiful  parents  know  the  game  of  stage-coach.  Each 
child  is  given  a  name,  such  as  the  whip,  the  nigh-leader,  the 
off-wheeler,  the  old-lady  passenger,  and,  under  penalty  of 
paying  a  forfeit,  must  get  up  and  turn  round  when  the  grown 
up,  who  is  improvising  a  thrilling  story,  mentions  that  par 
ticular  object;  and  when  the  word  " stage-coach'*  is  men 
tioned,  everybody  has  to  get  up  and  turn  round.  Well,  we 
used  to  play  stage-coach  on  the  float  while  in  swimming,  and 
instead  of  tamely  getting  up  and  turning  round,  the  child 
whose  turn  it  was  had  to  plunge  overboard.  When  I  men 
tioned  "stage-coach,"  the  water  fairly  foamed  with  vigorously 
kicking  little  legs;  and  then  there  was  always  a  moment  of 
interest  while  I  counted,  so  as  to  be  sure  that  the  number  of 
heads  that  came  up  corresponded  with  the  number  of  chil 
dren  who  had  gone  down. 


I  am  puzzled  to  know  whether  Roosevelt's 
/attitude  toward  his  youngest  boy,  Quentin,  whose 
body  lies  in  his  soldier's  grave  in  France,  should  be 
put  under  the  head  of  courage  or  gentleness.  The 
father  who  has  the  most  gentle  love  for  his  child 
really  wants  that  child  to  make  the  most  of  its 
life,  not  merely  to  vegetate,  protected  from  every 
kind  of  danger,  trial,  or  obstacle.  Quentin's  death 
was  a  blow  to  Roosevelt,  but  I  think  he  never  re 
gretted  the  encouragement  and  support  which  he 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  305 

gave  his  youngest  son  in  making  the  Great  Adven 
ture.  Quentin,  then  nineteen  years  old,  was  com 
pleting  his  sophomore  year  in  Harvard.  When 
this  country  declared  war  on  Germany  he  tele 
graphed  his  mother  that  he  was  leaving  college 
to  come  to  New  York  to  enlist.  During  a  visit 
at  Sagamore  Hill  in  the  summer  of  1917,  after 
Quentin  had  gone  to  the  French  front,  I  asked  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  whether  they  did  not  feel 
it  to  be  a  special  hardship  that,  at  so  early  an  age, 
Quentin  should  have  to  give  up  his  education  and 
many  of  his  associations  at  Harvard  which  he 
could  never  renew  even  if  the  war  left  him  un 
scathed.  They  both  replied  that  they  were  par 
ticularly  glad  that,  on  his  own  initiative,  he  had 
taken  the  exact  course  which  would  put  him  in  one 
of  the  most  dangerous  branches  of  the  service. 

"I  would  not  have  stopped  him  if  I  could," 
added  Mr.  Roosevelt;  "and  I  could  not  have 
stopped  him  if  I  would.  The  more  American  boys 
from  nineteen  to  twenty-one  join  the  army  the 
better  it  is  for  the  country.  To  take  them  out 
of  our  civil  life  entails  the  smallest  economic  loss 
upon  the  Nation,  and  because  of  their  elasticity 
and  powers  of  recuperation  they  are  its  greatest 
military  asset/5 

Nevertheless,  if  Roosevelt  could  have  given  him- 


306    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

self  and  saved  Quentin  he  would  gladly  have  done 
so.  Just  before  Quentin's  death  Mr.  Stephane 
L'auzanne — the  editor  of  the  Paris  Matin,  then  in 
this'  country1 — was  returning  to  Paris;  he  asked 
Roosevelt  for  a  message  to  take  back  to  his  coun 
trymen.  This  was  Roosevelt's  response: 

"I  have  no  message  for  France;  I  have  already 
given  her  the  best  I  had.  But  if,  over  there,  they 
speak  of  me,  tell  them  that  my  only  regret  is  that 
I  could  not  give  myself/* 

One  of  my  pleasantest  recollections  of  Roosevelt 
is  connected  with  this  gentle  side  of  his  character. 
Preceding  and  during  the  Progressive  campaign  of 
1912  he  used  to  lunch  weekly  with  his  editorial 
colleagues  at  the  National  Arts  Club  in  Gramercy 
Park.  There  were  usually  several  guests.  On  a 
certain  one  of  these  luncheon  days  there  were  to  be 
two  distinguished  foreign  diplomats  as  the  guests  of 
honour,  the  ambassadors  from  Brazil  and  Argen 
tina,  and  I  had  gone  around  from  our  office,  a  few 
blocks  away,  to  the  club  just  ahead  of  Mr.  Roose 
velt,  to  make  sure  that  all  the  arrangements  were 
complete.  We  did  not  often  have  foreign  ambassa 
dors  at  our  table  and  I  felt  a  desire,  which  house 
wives  who  read  these  lines  will  understand,  to  see 
that  the  flowers  and  napery  and  spoons  and  forks 
were  properly  arranged. 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  307 

As  I  approached  the  club  I  saw  a  lady  standing 
on  the  sidewalk  stooping  over  to  talk  to  a  small 
boy  about  ten  years  old,  who  was  crying  bitterly. 
The  boy  was  sobbing  so  convulsively  that  it  was 
impossible  to  understand  what  he  was  saying; 
but  on  stopping  to  see  if  I  could  be  of  any  assistance 
the  lady,  seeing  that  the  boy  was  being  attended 
to,  went  on  her  way.  I  managed  to  extract  from 
the  little,  quivering  figure  the  information  that 
he  was  lost.  His  father  was  a  Hungarian  miner 
from  Pennsylvania;  that  family  had  arrived  that 
morning  in  New  York  on  their  way  back  to  Hun 
gary;  the  ship  was  to  sail  the  next  day;  he  had  just 
stepped  out  of  the  house  where  they  were  stopping 
to  see  the  street  sights  of  the  great,  strange  city. 
Further  details  were  blotted  out  by  another  burst 
of  weeping. 

Just  then  Mr.  Roosevelt  came  sailing  around 
the  corner  of  the  iron  palings  of  Gramercy  Park, 
busily  talking  with  his  companion,  General  F.  V. 
Greene,  who,  like  Roosevelt,  had  been  a  police 
commissioner.  He  stopped  and  asked  what  was 
the  matter.  I  told  him  what  I  had  learned,  and 
he  said,  half  to  the  boy  and  half  to  General  Greene : 

"We'll  soon  fix  this.  Let  me  see,  General, 
isn't  there  a  precinct  station-house  in  Twenty- 
Second  Street  near  Second  Avenue?  We'll  take 


308    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

him  there  and  they  will  send  out  a  general  alarm 
for  his  father  and  mother/' 

The  little  derelict  stopped  his  weeping — he 
seemed  to  feel  an  instinctive  confidence  in  the 
power  of  this  strange  man  to  do  things — and  we 
all  started  off  to  the  police  station  half  a  mile 
away.  Mr.  Roosevelt  hardly  spoke  to  the  boy, 
who  plodded  along  contentedly  beside  him,  while 
he  continued  his  discussion  with  General  Greene 
on,  I  think,  some  military  subject. 

When  we  got  to  the  precinct  station  the  lieuten 
ant  or  sergeant  in  charge  recognized  the  two 
former  police  commissioners.  Mr.  Roosevelt  told 
him  the  facts,  gave  the  boy  a  piece  of  silver  to  get 
some  luncheon  and,  telling  the  little  fellow  that 
the  police  would  find  his  mother  and  father  before 
long,  left  him  perfectly  comfortable  and  contented. 
We  returned  to  the  club  half  an  hour  late,  but 
the  diplomatic  guests  were  repaid  for  their  delay 
by  their  interest  in  the  story  of  the  incident  which 
I  related  as  our  excuse. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  I  called  up  the  police 
station  and  found  that  through  the  medium  of  a 
general  alarm,  or  some  such  police  procedure,  the 
frightened  boy  and  the  terrified  parents  had  been 
happily  brought  together. 

This  little  incident  is  a  simple  one  but  I  think 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  309 

it  worth  telling  because  it  shows  that  Roosevelt 
was  more  interested  in  helping  a  small  boy  in 
trouble — not  sending  someone  else  as  he  might 
easily  have  done  but  doing  it  himself — than  he 
was  in  greeting  the  ambassadors  of  two  great 
foreign  countries  to  which  he  was  about  to  make 
an  important  visit.  For  he  was  then  arranging 
his  expedition  to  South  America  and  his  exploration 
of  the  Brazilian  jungle.  He  had  a  warm-hearted 
human  sympathy  and  a  gentle,  almost  woman-like 
kind  of  tenderness  of  which  thousands  who  ad 
mired  his  strenuous  life  knew  nothing. 

Roosevelt  was  not  interested  in  dogmatic  or 
metaphysical  theology.  Indeed,  I  doubt  if  he 
cared  for  metaphysics  of  any  kind;  I  am  inclined 
to  think  he  would  have  sympathized  with  the  wit 
who  once  said  that  the  only  use  for  metaphysics 
is  to  furnish  arguments  for  the  abolition  of  meta 
physics;  I  am  sure  he  would  have  agreed  with 
Emerson  that  "metaphysics  is  dangerous  as  a 
single  pursuit;  .  .  .  the  inward  analysis  must 
be  corrected  by  rough  experience.  Metaphysics 
must  be  perpetually  reinforced  by  life;  must  be 
the  observations  of  a  working  man  on  working 
men/'  But  although  not  of  the  metaphysical 
temperament  he  was  deeply  interested  in  a  phi 
losophy  of  life  and  in  the  morals  and  ethics  that 


*3io    IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

underlie  the  finest,  most  beautiful,  and  most 
worth-while  human  relationships.  I  do  not  know 
whether  he  was  a  Platonist  or  an  Aristotelian, 
a  Trinitarian  or  a  Unitarian,  a  Pantheist  or  a 
Deist,  but  I  do  know  that  he  believed  that  there 
are  axiomatic  laws  of  virtue  and  goodness  which 
we  do  not  need  to  argue  about  any  more  than  we 
do  about  the  law  of  gravitation. 

One  of  the  most  complete  and  satisfying  creeds 
that  was  ever  written  is  that  of  the  Prophet  Micah: 
"O  man,  what  doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee  but 
to  do  justly,  love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly  with 
thy  God?"  Not  long  after  Roosevelt's  death, 
his  sister,  Mrs.  Douglas  Robinson,  told  me 
that  this  verse  from  the  Book  of  Micah  was  his 
favourite.  And  a  letter  was  published  last  Febru 
ary  by  the  General  Secretary  of  the  New  York 
Bible  Society  saying  that  when  he  asked  Roosevelt 
in  the  summer  of  1917  to  send  through  that  so 
ciety  a  message  to  the  American  troops  abroad, 
the  Colonel  chose  Micah's  text  as  his  message, 
which  he  wrote  out  in  his  own  hand  with  this 
comment: 

Do  justice:  and  therefore  fight  valiantly  against  the  armies 
of  Germany  and  Turkey;  for  these  nations,  in  this  crisis,  stand 
for  the  reign  of  Moloch  and  Beelzebub  on  this  earth. 

Love  Mercy:  treat  prisoners  well;  succour  the  wounded; 


©  Underwood  &  Underwood 


The  last  photograph   of  Colonel   Roosevelt,   taken   shortly 
before  the  serious  illness  which  finally  caused  his  death 


The  hillside  burial 


Paul  Thompson 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  311 

treat  every  woman  as  if  she  were  your  sister;  care  for  the  little 
children,  and  be  tender  with  the  old  and  helpless. 

Theodore  Roosevelt's  personality  was  an  un 
surpassed  combination  of  the  unterrified  fighter 
of  what  he  believed  to  be  the  worst,  and  the  tender 
hearted  lover  of  what  he  believed  to  be  the  best 
in  mankind.  Whether  he  loved  or  hated,  talked 
or  read,  worked  or  played  he  did  it  with  zest  and 
eagerness.  The  words  of  William  James  may  well 
be  applied  to  such  a  life: 

Wherever  a  process  of  life  communicates  an  eagerness  to 
him  who  lives  it,  there  the  life  becomes  genuinely  significant. 
Sometimes  the  eagerness  is  more  knit  up  with  the  motor 
activities,  sometimes  with  the  imagination,  sometimes  with 
reflective  thought.  But  wherever  it  is  found,  there  is  the 
zest,  the  tingle,  the  excitement  of  reality;  and  there  is  "im 
portance"  in  the  only  real  and  positive  sense  in  which  im 
portance  ever  anywhere  can  be. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  END 

IF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT  could  be  asked 
what  phase  of  his  many-sided  life  seems  to  him 
the  most  important  and  gives  him  the  most 
satisfaction,  I  am  sure  that  he  would  say  instantly 
that  he  wishes  to  be  remembered  most  as  the 
founder  and  head  of  a  family.  It  was  therefore 
peculiarly  suitable  that  his  funeral  should  have 
been  that  of  a  husband  and  a  father  rather  than 
that  of  a  statesman  and  a  military  hero. 

He  died  on  January  6, 1919.  The  services  in  his 
memory  at  the  little  Episcopal  church  in  Oyster 
Bay,  on  Wednesday,  January  8,  were  simple, 
unpretentious,  and  genuine,  but  they  were  pro 
foundly  impressive.  There  was  no  pomp,  no  cere 
mony.  Four  or  five  hundred  of  his  personal  friends 
gathered  in  the  little  edifice  where  he  had  been 
wont  to  worship.  His  son,  Captain  Archie  Roose 
velt — in  his  uniform  and  with  his  arm  and  hand 
still  bound  in  the  splint  which  was  aiding  to  cure 
the  serious  wound  he  received  in  France — and 
his  nephew,  Theodore  Douglas  Robinson,  met  the 
friends  as  they  entered,  and  aided  in  showing  them 

to  seats. 

312 


THE  END  313 

In  accordance  with  the  liturgy  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  the  coffin,  draped  in  an  American  flag, 
was  borne  up  the  aisle  preceded  by  the  rector, 
Dr.  Talmage,  and  followed  by  the  immediate 
members  of  the  family  and  of  the  household.  The 
ceremony  consisted  simply  of  the  reading  of  the 
burial  service.  There  was  no  music.  But  the 
rector  read  as  a  part  of  the  service  what  is  believed 
to  have  been  one  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  favourite 
hymns:  "How  Firm  a  Foundation,  Ye  Saints  of 
the  Lord."  There  was  no  eulogy,  no  address. 
But  at  the  close  of  the  service  the  rector  stepped 
forward  to  the  head  of  the  casket,  and,  instead  of 
pronouncing  in  the  usual  words  the  beautiful 
benediction  which  will  be  found  at  the  end  of  the 
Penitential  Office  for  Ash  Wednesday,  1  recited 
it  as  follows: 

Theodore,  the  Lord  bless  thee,  and  keep  thee.  The  Lord 
make  his  face  to  shine  upon  thee,  and  be  gracious  unto  thee. 
The  Lord  lift  up  his  countenance  upon  thee,  and  give  thee 
peace,  both  now  and  evermore.  Amen. 

After  the  brief  service  in  the  church  Roosevelt's 
friends  and  neighbours  followed  his  body  to  the 
cemetery,  where  it  now  lies.  It  is  a  village  burial 
ground  on  a  hillside,  informal  but  neatly  kept, 
and  adorned  with  the  native  trees  of  which  Roose 
velt  was  so  fond.  His  grave  lies  at  the  top  of 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  hill,  from  which  there  is  a  charming  view  of  the 
waters  of  Long  Island  Sound  and  of  the  rolling 
and  wooded  landscape  which  makes  Oyster  Bay 
a  particularly  beautiful  spot. 

There  was  solemnity  during  these  last  tributes, 
but  there  was  no  grief.  There  never  was  grief  in  the 
presence  of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  and  although  his 
body  was  gone  there  could  not  be  in  the  presence 
of  his  spirit. 

As  I  came  down  the  slope  from  the  hilltop  where 
his  body  lies  I  thought  of  the  requiem  and  epitaph 
by  Robert  Louis  Stevenson: 

Under  the  wide  and  starry  sky 
Dig  the  grave  and  let  me  lie. 
Glad  did  I  live,  and  gladly  die, 
And  I  laid  me  down  with  a  will. 

This  be  the  verse  you  grave  for  me: 
"Here  he  lies,  where  he  longed  to  be; 
Home  is  the  sailor,  home  from  the  sea, 
And  the  hunter  home  from  the  hill." 

As  time  goes  on  Roosevelt's  defects — for  there 
never  was  a  man  of  whom  it  could  be  more  truly 
said  that  he  had  the  defects  of  his  qualities — will 
more  and  more  sink  into  the  background — his 
virtues  and  genius  as  a  man  and  a  statesman  will 
more  and  more  come  forward  into  the  light.  Wheth 
er  or  not  it  will  be  possible  at  some  time  to  make 
Sagamore  Hill — his  homestead  at  Oyster  Bay— 


THE  END  315 

a  national  memorial  park  I  do  not  know,  but 
since  his  burial  there  has  been  a  constant  stream 
of  pilgrims  to  his  hillside  grave.  This  is  not  a 
little  surprising,  for  Oyster  Bay  is  off  the  main 
routes  of  travel  and  there  is  nothing  about  the 
country  graveyard  that  forms  his  resting  place 
to  attract  the  visitor  except  the  memory  of  the 
man  himself.  Even  after  death  his  magnetic 
spirit  still  draws  people  to  him.  This  continuing 
power  of  his  personality  is  set  forth  so  appropri 
ately  in  a  poem  by  his  sister  Corinne  Roosevelt, 
Mrs.  Douglas  Robinson,  that  I  have  asked  and 
received  her  permission  to  close  these  pages  with  it. 

At  Sagamore  the  Chief  lies  low. 

Above  the  hill,  in  circled  row 

The  whirring  airplanes  dip  and  fly — 

A  guard  of  honour  from  the  sky — 
Eagles  to  guard  the  Eagle.     Woe 
Is  on  the  world.     The  people  go 
With  listless  footstep,  blind  and  slow; 

For  one  is  dead — who  shall  not  die 
At  Sagamore. 

Oh!    Land  he  loved,  at  last  you  know 
The  son  who  served  you  well  below, 

The  prophet  voice,  the  visioned  eye. 

Hold  him  in  ardent  memory, 
For  one  is  gone — who  shall  not  go — 
From  Sagamore! 


THE   COUNTRY  LIFE   PRESS 
GARDEN   CITY,   N.   Y. 


C1J.S  ±>  " 


LD  21A-60m-3,'65 
(F2336slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


